Month: June 2021

In news so absurd we couldn’t have possibly made it up, the “dumbest member of Congress” just questioned whether the U.S. might be able to stop climate change by altering the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert made the comment during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing focused on combatting the effects of climate change. Claiming that a past director of NASA once told him that the orbits of the Earth and moon were changing, the House member from Texas asked Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief of the National Forest System, if her organization was looking to space for answers on how to improve global warming issues here at home.

“I understand from what’s been testified to the Forest Service and the BLM [Bureau of Land Management], you want very much to work on the issue of climate change,” Gohmert began, via Gizmodo. “Is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit or the Earth’s orbit around the sun? Obviously, they would have profound effects on our climate.”

Eberlien seemed a bit stunned at the question, telling Gohmert she’d have to follow up with him regarding his orbital concerns. To be fair, she was probably trying to figure out if the Congressman was just joking because really, how can anyone be that obtuse? Gohmert responded to her answer saying, “Well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service can make that change, I’d like to know.”

Now, in all likelihood, Gohmert probably doesn’t care that much about climate change and wanted to make some point about global warming being a ridiculous theory by posing his own, equally implausible solution. After all, this is the guy whose tooth fell out during a press conference and said his face mask gave him COVID — though he rarely wore it. He’s not the sharpest tool in the GOP’s shed.

Still, some people will no doubt latch onto this ridiculous idea and run with it on Reddit forums and QAnon pages so let’s set the record straight: Global warming is an absolutely real crisis that humanity is fueling far more than any changes happening to the moon’s gravitational orbit. In fact, the whole concept of Earth’s orbit changes — we circle the sun in different ways over the course of thousands of years, and sometimes we “wobble” on our axis — is something NASA has studied, written about, and given a name. They’re also fairly clear on why none of these changes to Earth’s orbit are the cause of global warming.

And yet, Gohmert doubled down on Twitter, slamming people for conflating the abbreviation for the Bureau of Land Management with the Black Lives Matter movement in an effort to make him look even more ridiculous.

As if the question in its original context didn’t do that job already. But don’t worry, Twitter had the appropriate response to Gohmert’s nonsensical answer to the global warming problem.

In an interview with The Miami Herald, Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas said that he is “optimistic” that Lionel Messi will play for Inter Miami in MLS someday. He confirmed that Messi and Inter Miami owner David Beckham have had “serious talks” with Messi about coming to MLS.

“David and I have been working really hard, we have aspirations of bringing the best players here and Leo Messi is a generational player, arguably the best player of all time,” Mas told the Herald. “I am optimistic Messi will play in an Inter Miami shirt because I think it will complete the legacy of the greatest player in our generation and will meet with the ambitions of the owners of Inter Miami to build a world class team.”

Messi, arguably the greatest player of all-time, is currently under contract Barcelona. But it’s reported that, as part of a new deal with Barcelona, he will play two more years in Spain and then two years in Miami. By the time he comes to MLS if this deal is accurate, Messi would be 35 or 36 years old. He’d still probably be great because he’s Messi, but it won’t be peak Messi. Considering Miami has struggled mightily since entering the league — both on the pitch and in terms of operating within the league’s rulebook when putting together its roster — it could also be like Barcelona for him that he comes to a team he has to carry.

Miami has been linked with moves for plenty of European-based stars over the years, with the team acquiring former Real Madrid and Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain last September. Messi, obviously, is the biggest name that has been kicked around as a potential Miami player somewhere down the road.

At this point, Lauren Mayberry has a well-established career: She’s the leader of Chvrches, a successful synth-pop group that’s gearing up to release its fourth album, Screen Violence, in August. Years ago, though, Mayberry was a journalist, which she spoke about with Mark Hoppus on After School Radio on Apple Music. During the conversation, she explained why, in her eyes, she wasn’t an awesome music critic.

After Hoppus asked about her past in journalism, Mayberry said:

“I was a bad entry level journalist, yes. In my early twenties, I was doing music writing stuff. I was not a good music journalist because whenever you have to do reviews, I think if you’re in a band, […] it’s hard to review other bands the way that people, critics, want you to. Because that would be like, ‘This is where I think they might’ve taken some inspiration. It wasn’t for me, but they clearly worked hard on it, and it’s difficult to make anything, so maybe somebody will like it.’ And that’s a bad review, that’s not helpful.”

She went on to say that the experience was useful in giving her a different perspective on how the media works: “But I think it was helpful in so far as you see how the sausage is made. It gives me an insight into what the media process is a bit, and especially what it’s like for women in music as well, because I would be like sub-editing things and be like, ‘Wow, that’s a terrible headline. Why are you putting that on it? That’s not what she said.’”

Fans have been waiting patiently for Doja Cat’s new full-length album, Planet Her to drop, the follow-up to her 2019 project Hot Pink. One of the clearest signs that the record was going to be dropping soon is her new collaboration with SZA, “Kiss Me More,” — which the pair performed at this year’s Billboard Awards — but that song came out over two months ago now, and no album. But we’ve got another sign that Planet Her is going to be coming soon with a clip of a new track that Doja shared on Instagram today.

Though there’s very little actual music in the clip, the camera is whooshing through space to double down on the intergalactic feel for the record. Finally zooming in on a room decorated with art, where the long, pink nails give away Doja herself. Dubbed “Need To Know” in the video and in the pop star’s caption, the song is scheduled to drop this Friday, June 11. It’s too early to tell if this song will get caught up in a TikTok craze like her past singles “Say So” and “Streets” have, but it seems like it’s definitely going to have a space age theme. Check out the clip above and keep out an eye for Planet Her hopefully lifting off some day soon.

The Atlanta Hawks are currently locked in a 1-1 series with the Philadelphia 76ers after swiping Game 1 in Philly before dropping Game 2. As they head back to Atlanta for their first home games of the series, the Hawks received some unfortunate news regarding one of their young stars.

De’Andre Hunter has not played in either of the first two games against the Sixers, as he was listed out for both games with right knee soreness, but on Wednesday the team offered a new update that, unfortunately, brought word of a small tear in his meniscus that will require surgery and end his season.

The initial review revealed a new small tear of the lateral meniscus. Films from the MRI were sent to Dr. Neal ElAttrache of Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles for a second opinion, who earlier today confirmed the tear and recommended surgery. Hunter is scheduled to travel to Los Angeles this weekend and undergo surgery to the lateral meniscus on Tuesday with Dr. ElAttrache. He will miss the remainder of the postseason and future updates will be provided as appropriate.

The Hawks have started Solomon Hill in place of Hunter in both games so far, with Kevin Huerter taking a bigger role and playing well off the bench. Huerter, Hill, and Danilo Gallinari all become far more important in this series without Hunter, who is the Hawks best wing defender and spent much of the Knicks series hounding Julius Randle. Without Hunter, Nate McMillan often has to choose between having more offense or more defense on the court with his wing rotation, and it’s an unfortunate loss for one of the league’s best surprises this postseason.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has (like everyone else) dealt with a lot over the past 18 months or so. He previously expressed frustrations at anti-vaxxers, along with conspiracy theorists who blame him for the virus emerging in Wuhan [with accusations that the National Institute of Health (NIH) provided financial resources for gain-of-function research], and Fauci’s also dealt with threats against his family’s safety. Things got scary, so much so that former Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was banned from Twitter for his incitement of extreme violence against Fauci. Yes, Bannon really did call for the doctor’s head on a pike, and these days, Fauci’s completely had it with his critics.

Via Mediaite, Fauci sat down with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, and yes, he talked about himself in third person, but he also threw down the emphasis: “If you are trying to get at me as a public health official and scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you are attacking science.”

Fauci continued, characterizing the attacks on him as not only literally dangerous for their threats of imminent danger but because they completely discount the value of science. “All of the things that I have spoken about consistently from the very beginning have been fundamentally based on science,” he insisted. “Sometimes those things were inconvenient truths for people, and there was pushback against me.”

What got under Fauci’s skin today was Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn feeding another conspiracy theory about how Fauci was somehow in cahoots with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on how the shape the COVID-19 discourse on the social media platform. “I don’t want to be pejorative against a united States senator,” Fauci explained. “But I have no idea what she’s talking about.” He went on to characterize Blackburn’s words as “painfully ridiculous.”

You can watch the rest of Fauci’s rant below.

(Via Mediaite & The Hill)

Prior to forming One Direction, Liam Payne experienced his breakout moment on The X Factor at just 14 years old. Because he was constantly in the public eye starting at such a young age, Payne was forced to privately work through mental health issues alone. Now one month sober, the singer has opened up about his experience with childhood stardom and how his One Direction years resulted in substance abuse and depression.

Payne recently sat down with Stephen Bartlett on a segment of the podcast Diary Of A CEO, where he got candid about therapy, his relationship with the media, and how being mega-famous was traumatic. “One of our old managers went to therapy from being a manager of One Direction,” he said on the podcast. “You can imagine how that feels, the rest of us definitely needed some.”

Part of what led to his substance abuse, as Payne describes, was the boyband’s lack of freedom while touring. From an outsiders perspective, it would seem that One Direction had everything they wanted: screaming fans, brand deals, loads of money. But in reality, they were so famous that they were locked alone in their hotel rooms right after leaving the stage:

“The problem we had in the band, and I don’t blame anyone for this. When we were in the band, the best way to secure us because of how big it got was just lock us in our rooms. And, of course, what’s in the room? Mini-bar. So at certain point, I thought, I’m going to have a party of one. That just seemed to carry on for many years of my life. […] As a teen, the one thing you need is freedom to make choices and freedom to do stuff. Although we could do anything we wanted, it seemed as though from the outside, we were always locked into a room at night.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Payne describes what led him to the decision to become sober. “There’s some stuff that I’ve never, never spoken about that was really, really, really severe,” he said. “It was a problem. It was only until I saw myself after that I was like, alright, I need to fix myself. […] I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where’s rock bottom for me? And you would never have seen it. I’m very good at hiding it. No one would ever have seen it.”

Watch Payne open up about his One Direction years on Diary Of A CEO above, around the 23-minute mark.

In case you thought the cicada problem in Washington D.C. was being exaggerated, President Joe Biden took one of the flying insects to the neck on Wednesday morning. Emerging every 17 years, the Brood X cicadas have been particularly concentrated in the nation’s capital, and one of them finally got a taste of that sweet presidential blood, which caused Biden to warn reporters to watch out. Via Politico:

Chatting with a uniformed military officer before boarding Air Force One, en route to a Royal Air Force station in England, the president could be seen swatting a sizable insect from his neck. Biden’s gesture interrupted his conversation with the service member as both men diverted their gazes to the ground, where the bug had apparently landed.

You can see Biden taking a cicada to the neck below:

Before making a move for Biden, the cicadas had already been causing problems for the White House. According to the AP, cicadas got aboard Air Force Two after hiding themselves in the shirt folds of one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ secret service agents. Not content with that excursion, another swarm of cicadas managed to ground an entire plane on Tuesday. That aircraft was carrying the press corps that was supposed to land in London ahead of Biden. Instead, the reporters were forced to switch planes after a number of the insects were discovered near the plane’s mechanics. They’re freaking annoying is the main gist here.

(Via Politico, Associated Press)

Count Shaquille O’Neal as a fan of Nuggets star Nikola Jokic winning the 2021 NBA MVP Award. Speaking to Jokic on TNT, O’Neal thanked Jokic for winning MVP and what it means for centers in the Association.

“Joker, Shaq here, thank you!” the Hall of Fame inductee said. “Because of you, the big man is back in today’s game. You’re the first big man to win MVP in a very long time. I thank you and I appreciate you big time. Coming from Serbia as a kid, did you ever think that ‘I will be MVP of the NBA one day?’”

“No! To be honest, I didn’t even think I would be in the NBA, you know,” Jokic said in response. “My goal, as far as why I was playing basketball back home, was playing in the EuroLeague. Because it was the closest top league to my country, you know.

“I thought I can play in some big clubs in Serbia and then kinda grind my way up,” Jokic continued. “But then when Denver Nuggets drafted me, it was an opportunity for me to become an NBA player and I think I did a good job of using that opportunity.”

Jokic is, in fact, the first big to win MVP since O’Neal took home the award in 2000. Jokic is obviously very different than O’Neal, but both are unique dominant in their own ways. Jokic be at the head of a class of bigs who all could at least contend MVPs in the coming years. Not only could he win multiple — he’s squarely in his prime — but Joel Embiid is around and likely would have been in the conversation this year had he not gotten hurt. Maybe this is the start of an all-new era for big men among the NBA’s elite players.

Michael and Jack McConnell will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on September 3rd and it won’t only be a big moment for them, it’ll be a landmark for the entire gay rights movement.

The couple was legally married 32 years before Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 and 43 before it became federally legal in 2015.

How did they do it? They outsmarted a system that wasn’t prepared to address same-sex marriage.

Back in 1970, the couple applied for a marriage license at the Hennepin County courthouse in Minnesota and were turned down. They decided to try again using a legal loophole that Jack discovered. Jack was so determined to get married that he attended law school in the 1960s to find out how the couple could do so legally.

Jack Baker and Michael McConnell share how they obtained a legal same-sex marriage in Minnesota in 1971 and how the… https://t.co/NKN8L3vaCw

— TODAY (@TODAYshow)
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“The marriage statute in Minnesota, I found that there was nothing in there that said we couldn’t get married,” Jack told Today.

Jack legally changed his name to the gender-neutral Pat Lyn Baker so that it wouldn’t garner any unnecessary attention on the marriage license application. Then, Michael went alone to the Blue Earth County, Minnesota court to apply for a license.

The couple was in a hurry to get married because the first license was under review by the courts in the state of Minnesota.

The court clerk approved the couple’s license application and on September 3, 1971, the couple was married in a ceremony presided over by Methodist Pastor Roger Lynn.

“There was a cake and rather than a bride and groom on the top, there were two grooms,” Lynn recalled. The pastor would later lose his job for officiating the wedding but was later reinstated on appeal.

“We knew from day one when we were legally married in 1971 that we were right — that we had followed the law to the letter,” Michael McConnell told NBC News.

The Story Of America’s First Gay Wedding 50 Years Ago

www.youtube.com

Unfortunately, when it was discovered that Pat Lynn Baker was a male, the clerk at the Blue Earth County court refused to record the license. In 1972, their first case made it to the Minnesota Supreme Court but it was dismissed without a hearing.

The couple believed that it was their legal right to get married because there were no laws against it in the state of Minnesota. “What is not forbidden is permitted, and nowhere in Minnesota’s statutes was same-sex marriage forbidden,” Jack said according to Financial Times.

With no proof of legal marriage, the couple could not receive spousal benefits, even after gay marriage was legalized in 2015.

Last year, after a prolonged legal battle, the couple’s 1971 marriage was deemed legal.

“This just simply proves that the first same-sex marriage ever recorded in the public files of any civil government anywhere in the world happened in Minnesota,” Jack McConnell said.

“The bullies with power have been bullying us for all this time, and we won,” Jack said.