Month: January 2021

After the MAGA riot at the Capitol that left five dead, Donald Trump — who addressed the crowd beforehand and has been accused of inciting the incident — was suspended from Twitter and impeached a second time. QAnon believers and Trump superfans were largely responsible for the riot, and many have pointed to politicians like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for their role in riling up the perpetrators and encouraging insurrection.

Another politician on that list is Georgia representative Majorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon-believing lawmaker who has made waves for her lunatic amplification of a nonsense theory, which asserts the claim that Trump is fighting a secret war against a cabal of child-eating, Satan-worshipping politicians and celebrities. Twitter and other social media sites have cracked down on QAnon accounts, and it appears Taylor Green’s Twitter account appears to be among them.

On Sunday, the representative announced in a wild press statement that she was suspended from the social media giant for 12 hours.

“Silicon Valley Cartel launched a multi-front attack to chill free speech in America by deplatforming President Donald Trump and purging an unknown number of conservatives,” the statement read.

According to ProPublica, the suspension comes in the wake of a now-deleted tweet where she openly called for citizens to rise up. “I encourage all Americans, not just the 75 million people who voted for President Trump, to mobilize and make your voices heard in opposition to these attacks on our liberties,” the tweet read.

Considering that kind of language encouraged Trump supporters to carry out the deadly, democracy-altering attack in Washington a fortnight back, it certainly makes sense that Twitter would be careful. But if the representative is going to send messages like that, her belief that social media companies are looking to censor her will certainly continue.

Almost a month has passed since news broke about the death of legendary rapper MF DOOM, whose passing in October wasn’t revealed until New Year’s Eve. Since then there’s been an outpouring of memoriams and celebrations, but a number of his fans are not too happy with how President-Elect Joe Biden aimed to honor him: with an inclusion on his inauguration playlist.

The issue: that DOOM, né Daniel Dumile, was barred from reentering the United States after he concluded an overseas tour, for the album Born Like This, back in 2010. Dumile was born in England and moved to New York as an infant, but he never applied for citizenship during his long stint in the United States. As a result, he spent the final decade of his life in England — which is to say, he was not allowed entry to America for much of Biden’s vice presidency. So when Biden put DOOM on his playlist, many people felt that was a thumb in the eye.

After his death, DOOM’s streaming numbers skyrocketed a whopping 870% and Madvillainy, his collaboration with producer Madlib, also reentered the Billboard albums charts, coming in at No. 73.

You can check out some of the reactions below.

The Kansas City Chiefs found themselves in a second half battle with the Browns on Sunday afternoon after a Cleveland score in the third quarter pulled them within nine points. For much of the game, the Chiefs offense had marched down the field almost at will, although they left points on the board in the form of a missed extra point and a missed field goal.

In the mid third quarter, on a third-and-1 at midfield, disaster struck for the Chiefs as Patrick Mahomes rushed the ball on an option play that saw him get hit hard and taken down with his head going into the football. As Mahomes tried to come back to his feet he was extremely wobbly and unable to stand on his own at first in a scary scene that had everyone in Kansas City extremely nervous.

It’s unclear exactly what happens as he gets tackled up high with the Browns defender’s arm around his neck and his head gets driven into the football, either of which could’ve been where the injury occurred. He was quickly taken to the locker room for a concussion evaluation and veteran backup Chad Henne took over and led Kansas City to a field goal on the remainder of the drive.

Not long after, the Chiefs announced Mahomes had indeed been ruled out with a concussion.

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has been disastrous so far, especially in New York City, formerly one of the hotspots for the highly contagious virus. But some have been lucky. One of them is Steve Martin, who has provided much-needed humor during this difficult time (and who will be back on TV sometime soon). Upon receiving his first dose, he decided some light self-deprecation was in order.

“Good news/Bad news. Good news: I just got vaccinated! Bad news: I got it because I’m 75. Ha!” Martin tweeted. Though it’s been a bear actually getting the vaccines out to the public, he did praise the operation at the Javits Center in New York was “smooth as silk” and “hosted to perfection by the US Army and National Guard.” He added, “Thank you all, and thank you science.”

When Martin was asked how he got the vaccine, he said that it wasn’t because he’s Steve Martin. Instead, he signed up on the city government’s website then “waited IN line,” just like everyone else (or everyone else who is elligible).

He also joked about some people’s baseless fears of side effects.

According to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s site, those New Yorkers currently eligible for the vaccination include “individuals 75 and older, first responders, public safety officers, teachers and other school staff; in-person college instructors, childcare workers, public-facing grocery store workers, transit workers and individuals living and working in homeless shelters.” If you fall under those categories, please sign up for vaccination posthaste.

(Via Deadline)

The Browns came into Arrowhead Stadium with a monumental task in front of them. How were they going to upset the No. 1 seeded Kansas City Chiefs? The Chiefs are defending Super Bowl Champs, one of the most prolific offenses in football, and extremely dangerous anytime they get the ball in their hands. To have a chance, you have to make every possession count when you have the ball.

Down 16-3 late in the second quarter, the Browns needed a score of any kind to give them some positive momentum going into halftime. Driving towards the end zone it felt like Cleveland was going to be able to get a field goal at minimum. Then, on a beautiful pitch and catch, Baker Mayfield found Rashard Higgins with room to run. He dove for the pylon and met a Chiefs defender at the goal line. Then the worst rule in football struck. The Browns fumbled the ball into the end zone and it rolled out the side. This is now considered a touchback and Chiefs ball.

This is an absolute momentum killer for the Browns. Instead of going into halftime with a score and primed to get the ball back at the start of halftime, they have to go in with nothing at all. The refs made the correct call, because that’s the way the rule is written, but it makes such little sense that the ball isn’t just placed at the 1-yard line. That’s how a fumble out of bounds is treated everywhere else on the field and it’s frustrating that changes when it comes to the end zones.

To make Browns fans even more frustrated by this play, the replay shows the Chiefs tackler, Dan Sorensen, leading with the crown of his helmet into Higgins head when he makes the hit. Had this been called on the field the refs could have reviewed it and made an unnecessary roughness call, which Gene Steratore said should’ve been called on the CBS broadcast, which would have given the Browns the ball back. Unlike in college, though, helmet-to-helmet hits are not reviewable in the NFL.

After getting the ball on the turnover, the Chiefs managed to drive down the field into field goal range and kick a field goal to up 19-3 at halftime. One play swung potentially the entire game in a disastrous way — and certainly swung a lot of money for bettors who had Cleveland +6 in the first half and lost out on the push.

Ryan Reynolds is such a decent guy that his one public beef is fictitious. (That would be his longtime fake feud with Hugh Jackman.) Last week he even took the time to give one of his fans a special gift. That person is Brody Dery, an 11-year-old with stage 3B Hodgkins Lymphoma and Crohn’s disease. Brody loves Deadpool, and he and his mother, who had to leave her job to help him after he was diagnosed last year, even watched it the night before they got a video from its star (not to mention fellow Canadian).

“I just heard a little bit about your story and I wanted to send you this video and let you know that I’m thinking about you and I’m sending you tons of love and I’m sending you strength, whatever strength I’ve got,” Reynolds tells Brody. He continued:

”

Man, you have a ton of people in your life that love you so much. I know you’ve been going through it, I know it’s been a challenge lately but you know something, Brody, you’re just the man for the job. So I’m sending you lots of love. I hope I get to meet you in person one of these days and hang in there.”

It’s a pretty nice gift, and Brody reportedly flipped when he saw Reynolds addressing him directly “He keeps saying, ‘I feel special – I feel like I’m the movie star,’ ” his mother told local news.

You can watch Reynolds’ video in the tweet above, and it should offer some respite from our wild and crazy news cycle.

(Via EW)

Like most Republicans, Lindsey Graham was once a Donald Trump skeptic, warning of the damage he may do to his party. And like most Republicans, he had one of his unpredictable changes of heart. The South Carolina senator has had the outgoing president’s back for the entirety of his administration, including the last two months, helping him push election fraud lies, even demanding Georgia’s secretary of state illegally throw out votes. So when Graham called on Democrats in the Senate to dismiss Trump’s House impeachment, so the nation can heal, his plea was not met kindly.

Trump was impeached last week, but the Senate is not scheduled to reconvene until after he’s out of office, when the Majority Leader baton will be passed from Mitch McConnell to Chuck Schumer. Graham made public a letter he sent Schumer, in which he argued that they should not follow the House’s lead.

“But now, in your first act as majority leader, rather than begin the national healing that the country so desperately yearns for, you seek vengeance and political retaliation instead,” Graham continued in his letter to Schumer. “While the vice president and Senate Republicans rejected unconstitutional actions, you seek to force upon the Senate, what would itself be but one more unconstitutional action in this disgraceful saga— the impeachment trial of a former president.”

Graham added on Twitter, “We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise.”

But given Graham’s antics over the last couple months, a lot of people called bull.

“A call for healing from a Senator who pushed election lies, claimed Democrats were cheating, and asked @GaSecofState ‘whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures,’” tweeted Jake Tapper.

Others weren’t convinced either.

Some speculated on Graham’s motives.

Perhaps someone who isn’t Lindsey Graham should be the one who calls for unity after one of American history’s most tumultuous presidencies. Or maybe someone who played a key role in creating the division of the last four years shouldn’t be the one demanding forgiveness.

(Via Politico)

Donald Trump will leave office later this week despite, you know, everything. The fallout of the coup attempt that he incited at an early January rally will be felt for years to come, both for Trump in his second impeachment trial and other potential legal liabilities. Those legal consequences are certainly being felt by some of his supporters, hundreds of which have been identified by the FBI and are currently being arrested by authorities. And as it turned out, they got plenty of help not just from random people online, but from within the families of the rioters themselves.

According to The Guardian, a number of people contacted the FBI about members of their own family after they learned they were present in Washington and attended the rally and subsequent storming of the US Capitol. Some of the quotes in the piece really are stunning, especially given the context of how brazen some people were in revealing what they did.

Lopez found out about her in-law’s participation when the woman in question called her aunt from inside the Capitol to brag about “taking back the election”. Lopez, who is 42, said she had known the relative her whole life but had “no qualms” about reporting her.

“If I saw my grandmother making bombs in her basement, or my aunt breaking into a home, I would have to intervene as well – it’s just about doing what’s right,” she said.

Another teenager quoted in the piece revealed that their own mother had attended the riots, posting about it online and speaking to Good Morning America about why she felt the video needed to be made.

The Massachusetts teen Helena Duke received a flood of support this week when she posted a video outing her own mother, aunt and uncle as having attended the Capitol protests.

The 18-year-old said her mother, who appears to be harassing a Black woman in the video shared, previously condemned her for attending Black Lives Matter protests. “If I did nothing, I felt I was as bad as them,” Duke told Good Morning America.

For some of these of these folks, well, they didn’t need anyone to do much detective work because they told on themselves.

The election and its aftermath will certainly be felt by families across America for a long time — it seems, some significantly more than others.

Duke Bootee, born Edward Fletcher, died this past Wednesday at the age of 69 following end-stage congestive heart failure. His wife Rosita confirmed the news as well as his cause of death to Rolling Stone. Fletcher was best known for co-writing and appearing on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s classic record, “The Message,” a song that has been widely celebrated in the hip-hop world since its release in 1982. Two decades later, in 2002, it became the first hip-hop record to be added to the National Registry and a decade after that, Rolling Stones ranked it at No. 1 on its list of the 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs Of All Time.

Fletcher would speak about “The Message” during a 2013 interview with The Guardian. “The neighborhood I was living in, the things I saw — it was like a jungle sometimes in Elizabeth, New Jersey,” he said. “Even though we lived in a nice area, I’d sit in the living room and watch things happening across the street in the park. The lyrics were sort of cinematic: I tried to hold a message up to society.” He added, “Rappers then were in their late teens and made feel-good, upbeat songs to party to, so this was completely new.”

He would eventually step out of the music business in the 1990s and take up teaching. He began as a high school teacher and college professor in New Jersey before he moving to Savannah, GA, in 2007. There, he became a Critical Thinking & Communication lecturer at Savannah State University up until his retirement in 2019.

(via Rolling Stone)

The first game of Sunday’s Divisional round doubleheader saw the Cleveland Browns take on the Chiefs in Kansas City, but for millions of people in the northeastern part of the United States, they were treated to a blank screen when they turned on CBS.

As it turns out some technical difficulties led to many people in Browns country and the tri-state area being without coverage of the start of the game — which was maybe merciful for Browns fans as the Chiefs marched, almost unimpeded, to a touchdown on the opening possession of the game. Still, that didn’t stop there from being a lot of angry NFL fans on Twitter wondering why they were looking at nothing during CBS’ biggest game of the weekend.

The good news is there are some workarounds. ESPN Deportes has the Spanish language broadcast of the game and, for Fios customers and others, that broadcast is working, just sans Romo and Nantz.

Other options include streaming on the NFL app or on NFL.com as you can log in with your TV provider and watch the stream that way. It’s not the ideal setup and people who pay hundreds of dollars a month for cable are understandably upset, but you can still get your Browns-Chiefs fix, it’ll just take a touch more effort than usual.