Month: May 2021

Even after he handily lost the election, even after he inspired a failed coup, even after he was banned by much of social media, Trump still, somehow, inexplicably rules the Republican party. GOP lawmakers continue to swear fealty to the disgraced 45th American president, and anyone who doesn’t — such as high-ranking representative Liz Cheney — is now in trouble of losing power. And then there’s Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger, who seems to be the only one in the party who truly has zero Fs to give.

Kinzinger was the first Republican lawmaker to agree with Democrats that they should invoke the 25th amendment after the aborted but deadly January 6 insurrection. It even cost him the love of some family members. But he’s soldiered on, and on Sunday he went on Face the Nation to warn that the party he’s long called his own that, should they continue to be in thrall to a former commander-in-chief who now lives in a resort with strangers, then they’re in deep, deep doo-doo.

The representative was asked about Cheney, who it looks may loser her number three position among House Republicans, just for being critical of a dangerous president who’s now a blogger. He wasn’t going along with his colleagues. He pointed out that what she’s saying — that he clearly lost an election, that he inspired a deadly mob, etc. — was “exactly” what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the day of the insurrection.

“She’s just been consistently saying it,” he sad. “And a few weeks later, Kevin McCarthy changed to attacking other people.” He then said the party really needs to take an honest look at what led to the events of January 6. But that’s not happening.

“Right now, it’s basically the Titanic. “We’re in the middle of this slow sink. We have a band playing on the deck, telling everybody it’s fine, and meanwhile, as I’ve said, Donald Trump’s running around, trying to find women’s clothing and get on the first lifeboat.”

Kinzinger added that it’s not good, “not only for the future of the party,” but also “for the future of this country.” The message from those who wish to oust Cheney from her position of power, he said, is “it’s just time to focus on the future and move on, like this was 10 years ago and we’ve been obsessed over it since. It’s been four months, and we have so many people, including our leadership in this party, who have not admitted that this is what it is — that this was an insurrection led by the president of the United States, well deserving of a full accounting from Republicans.”

In any case, half of Republicans still believe in what has been dubbed “The Big Lie” — that the election was somehow stolen from Trump, even though nothing approaching hard evidence has ever been provided. And so the fun times persist.

(Via Insider)

Drake has never been one to shy away from showing love to the mothers in his life. Examples of this come on songs like “Look What You’ve Done” and “You & The 6.” On the latter he raps, “You and the 6 raised me right, that sh*t saved my life” in reference to his mother Sandra while the former closed with a touching outro from his grandmother.

With that being said, it’s no surprise that the Toronto rapper used the Mother’s Day holiday to honor the moms around him, which includes Sophie Brussaux, the mother of his three-year-old son Adonis.

The tributes came in the form of Instagram posts. Drake shared a pair of throwback photos that captured him close by his mother’s side with the caption, “Only look for sympathy inside my mothers eyes.” Elsewhere on his Instagram Story, the rapper posted pictures of Brussaux with Adonis and wrote “Happy Mother’s Day big mama @sophieknowsbetter.” She reposted the photo to her own Instagram Story and added three blue hearts to it.

This past weekend, Drake decided to use the Mother’s Day holiday to deliver a limited number of his own candles to fellow Canadians through Uber Eats and Postmates. Customers who ordered $50 or more worth of food through the food delivery service platforms could receive a free candle from the rapper’s Better World Fragrance House brand as long as supplies last. He also teased the brand’s “first scent series,” which debuted today and is available for purchase through the Better World Fragrance House website.

You can view the posts above.

Aaron Rodgers really wants the full-time job of hosting Jeopardy! and, if you believe the show’s producers, he has a good shot at actually getting that gig later this year. But while the other contenders finish out their guest hosting duties this month, at least he can claim he’s still hosting episodes in a fictional canon.

Rodgers will serve as the host of Jeopardy! on an episode of The Conners, running the board while a character from the show makes an appearance during an upcoming episode. The show’s Twitter account shared the news on Saturday, announcing Rodgers as one of the guest stars of the final two episodes of the show’s third season.

In the trailer, Aunt Jackie flirts with Rodgers while she appears on the show and he hosts.

“Aaron Rodgers, this — I’ve been feeling some obvious chemistry here.”

He doesn’t appear to notice the advances, taking the role a bit more seriously than Jackie, who appears to be in the red money-wise during the game.

Rodgers was really enthusiastic about Jeopardy! during his two-week hosting stint, using the occasion to raise COVID-19 relief funds, chat with supporters and share clips from the show. He’s yet to address The Conners and his appearance on social media just yet, but it’s another example of his commitment to Jeopardy! that he wants to host in the ABC television canon, too. We’ll have to wait and see if he gets another chance at the actual Jeopardy! stage later in the year, but he certainly continues to look the part.

DK Metcalf made his track and field debut on Sunday afternoon, and all things considered, the Seattle Seahawks standout was pretty impressive. Metcalf threw on his track spikes and ran the 100 meter dash at the USATF Golden Games and Distance Open at Mt. SAC, an event that had potential U.S. Olympic Qualifying implications if he was fast enough.

The bad news for Metcalf is that he was not fast enough to reach that point, coming in ninth place in his heat and missing out on qualifying. The good news is that Metcalf still threw down a startling time, running the 100 in 10.36 seconds.

By no means did Metcalf look out of place, and despite this not being the sport he’s trained in, the Seahawks receiver managed the put forth a good time with room to grow. Time will tell if he decides to pursue this a little more, but before then, Metcalf received a ton of praise from other folks in the NFL.

One NFL player who knows a thing or two about life on the track is Marquise Goodwin of the Chicago Bears, who made the 2012 U.S. Olympic team as a long jumper. He, too, gave Metcalf props for doing what he did at his size.

Goodwin was hardly the only track athlete to throw praise Metcalf’s way.

Metcalf is one of the brightest young receivers in the NFL, so if he never did anything other than play football, no one would really blame him. Having said that, this is some serious promise in the 100 meters, and hopefully we’ll see him run it a few more times.

Actors love to master a thick, regional accent, but you know which one almost never gets any love? The Philly ‘burb accent. It’s more distinct than the Boston, not as insane as the Baltimore, and yet not even native Bradley Cooper dared replicate it when he made the Southeast Pennsylvania-set Silver Linings Playbook. In fact, about the only place you hear performers trying to work their way around it is on SNL.

A few years ago, James McAvoy — star of two films by proud Philly local M. Night Shyamalan — did a phenomenal Philly accent while hosting the show. The accent’s back in the news now, thanks to HBO’s Mare of Easttown, which finds another UK native, Kate Winslet, doing her best stab at it. Now SNL is getting back in on the game, with a hilarious parody that leans in thick on the tricky accent.

Kate McKinnon stands in for Winslet, playing a working class detective with a ratty ponytail investigating some miserable murder. But never mind that: What’s important is they all have incredibly specific accents that are so thick a non-resident, played by Mikey Day, has trouble deciphering their content. Indeed, the fake show is called Murder Durdur, “durdur” being roughly how one from just outside the City of Brotherly Love pronounces the word “daughter.”

The parody has more in its arsenal than the Philly ‘burb accent. There’s very easy cheesteak jokes, yes, but there’s also nods to Yuengling Lager and Conshohocken and Delco and the Schuylkill River, as well as Winslet’s favorite PA grocery chain, Wawa.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t been easy on anyone, and those of us lucky to endure isolation, disease and uncertainty often found new outlets with which to distract ourselves. Some took to gaming remotely, threw themselves at new hobbies or tried new shows and movies. One of those people is actor Mickey Rourke, who apparently fell in love with a show that’s quite a commitment if you’re a completionist.

Rourke shared on Instagram this weekend that he’s a huge Law and Order: SVU fan, sharing an image of the show’s logo and cast and an extremely nice compliment about the show and its cast. He even hilariously threw some shade at the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I never knew anything about it before until the lockdown since i have all my gym equipment in my living room,” Rourke explained, saying he started watching SVU about six months ago. “I’ve been doing all my training at home isolating.”

Rourke said he never intended to get whole hog into SVU. “I click on this show just by accident and curiosity and have to say I’ve never seen such terrific acting ever on television!” he wrote. “Each show that I seen and I probably seen a 1000 of them by now the producing is terrific, the direction is top class and most of all i am really impressed with this ensembles of highly talented actors.”

Rourke singled out the lead actors, starting with Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni, two of the show’s mainstays. But he also had love for BD Wong, Ice T and others, like Stephanie March, who have played huge roles on the show over the years.

Rourke certainly picked a good show to fill his time, as there are literally days worth of SVU episodes at this point in the show’s run. And it’s really charming to see an actor not only get sucked into a show themselves, but to also offer high praise of other performers. If he’s fishing for an appearance on his new favorite show, well, he made quite the first impression here.

The Iron Man 2 alum also threw a barb at the acting in Marvel movies. “Respect to all of you, the work that you all do is real acting,” he wrote. “Not like that crap that all on Marvel sh*t.”

Taylor Swift has done a number of remarkable things in her career. Records have been broken and new levels of pop stardom have been reached, but her latest feat is quite the unique one.

According to TMZ, Swift appeared on an AP US Government And Politics exam for high school students this year. The test-takers are, of course, not allowed to use their phones during the exam, so pictures of the exact question are nowhere to be found but it’s reported that it used the singer to ask how voter registration laws affect citizen participation.

Prior to last year’s election, Swift ramped up her political involvement in a number of ways, mostly in an attempt to convince voters to stop Donald Trump from attaining a second term in office. One example came last summer when she slammed the then-president’s decision to hold billions of dollars from and place restrictions on the USPS, which some believed was an attempt to hurt the postal services’ attempt to handle mail-in ballots prior to the election.

“Trump’s calculated dismantling of USPS proves one thing clearly: He is WELL AWARE that we do not want him as our president,” she wrote on Twitter. “He’s chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power.”

In another instance, Swift tried to rally Tennessee voters to select democrat Phil Bredesen — rather than the republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn — for the open U.S. Senate seat in the state.

Gabby Williams is being traded away from the Chicago Sky. After Williams made it clear that she intended to play for the French national team in the FIBA 2021 EuroBasket tournament, the Sky started to seek out a trade destination. The Sky, according to reports, wanted a player that was going to be playing the majority of this season, and the tournament, which runs from June 17-27, would pull Williams away from the team.

On Saturday, the Sky finally found a destination for Williams. According to multiple reports, she’ll be traded to the Los Angeles Sparks and will be working on a contract extension once the trade is completed.

Unfortunately for any Sparks fans that were hoping to see Williams in action this season, they’re going to have to wait. When the Sky were unable to find a trade suitor for Williams in time, they placed her on the full-season suspension list. This list means that the Sky wouldn’t have to pay Williams since she was, as the CBA describes it, “holding out” by choosing to play in EuroBasket.

In addition to any fine or suspension that a Team may impose on a player for failing to report at the start of the Season at the time and place designated by the Team, a Team may suspend such player for the remainder of such Season if: (a) she notifies the Team in writing that she will not be playing in the WNBA during such Season (it being understood that a player providing any such notification to a team shall not be construed to have consented to any fine imposed on the player for her failure to report); (b) within fourteen (14) days after the start of the Season, she fails either to report to the Team or to provide written notice to the Team stating that she intends to report within twenty-one (21) days after the start of such Season; or (c) she fails to report to the Team within twenty-one (21) days after the start of such Season.

That list also means that anyone placed on it can’t play for the entire season even if they’re traded to another team. By placing her on the list Thursday, the Sky essentially removed Williams from the 2021 WNBA season. This is really disappointing for not only the Sparks, but WNBA fans as a whole. Williams is an exciting player and a piece the Sparks can build around, and we want to see players like that on the court, even if it’s delayed because of international obligations. This is a bummer, but at least we’ll get to see Williams in 2022.

Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live gig was much closer to droll and boring than a disaster, but he still got lots of reaction in his appearance on the NBC sketch comedy showcase. Musk was in nearly every sketch on Saturday, skipping only the cold open and starring in a number of different segments that gave him a chance to change the narrative about the billionaire with troubling opinions about science.

Musk took part in a “cringe” sketch about Gen Z Hospital, which drew some criticism that the use of AAVE language was simply defined as a younger generation just being odd. But the big reaction of the night (beyond Dogecoin crashing) was a Mario Kart-based sketch about Mario’s murder.

Grimes making her acting debut was notable, sure, but the large reaction to the sketch was meme-enthusiast Musk taking on the role of Wario, a frequent gaming meme of his own.

The sketch frames Wario as the murderer of Mario while cart racing, using a shell to take him out. Wario goes on trial, but his lawyer argues discrimination against him because of his heritage and reveals a love affair between Princess Peach and Luigi, Mario’s brother. There’s also Kate McKinnon as Waluigi.

Conceptually, it was another Nintendo-themed sketch idea from the show in Season 46. And there was considerable attention to detail, including a badge behind the judge that says the trial was taking place in Toad Town. There were a lot of reactions to the sketch, which mostly were about how odd it was that Musk dressed up as Wario for a bit that was ultimately about Italian discrimination and included Pete Davidson as Andrew Cuomo.

In some ways, Musk as Wario became a meme of its own. The character was trending all day on Sunday as people reacted to the sketch, including on the show’s Twitter account.

Musk later called the sketch “my fav” on Twitter, though there were some that argued Wario should not be Italian at all.

In any event, if you want to see Musk dance to a Wario theme song, you can watch the full sketch above.

One of the best NBA storylines approaching the end of this season is the scoring race between Steph Curry and Bradley Beal. The Warriors and Wizards stars are currently trying to push their respective teams into good seeding for the upcoming play-in tournaments, but the scoring race has become a fun subplot amid those playoff aspirations.

Beal and Curry have both been on a tear the last month and a half, with each star averaging more than 30 points a night since the NBA trade deadline. Curry in particular has been a monster with a 37 point average behind a flurry of elite shooting, but Beal’s heroics have helped the Wizards win 15 of their last 19 games and pushed them all the way into play-in tournament range. When two players are having performances like this on a nightly basis, it’s hard to not notice each other, especially when they’re competing for the title of the best scorer in the league this year.

On Saturday, Beal had a 50 point barrage in an overtime victory over the Pacers. With the Warriors not tipping off until late into the evening, it gave Curry the chance to hear what Beal had done. In response, Curry scored a tidy 49 points in only 29 minutes, and after the game, he didn’t exactly deny that Beal’s performance in Indianapolis gave him added motivation.

As it stands right now, Curry’s 31.9 points per game gives him a slight lead over Beal’s 31.4. One advantage that Curry is going to have down the stretch is that he does a lot of his scoring damage from behind the arc in comparison to Beal. So Curry is statistically going to have a better chance at outscoring Beal on a night-to-night basis, although with Beal being such a heavy-volume player and Russell Westbrook’s brilliance in being able to set him up for good looks, he will have a shot to pass Curry before the end of the season.

While we’re going to be paying attention to their individual playoff races, we would be remiss to not keep an eye on the scoring battle taking place as well, because it’s going to go down to the wire between two of the most exciting players in the league.