Month: July 2021

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of two teams currently still with a head coaching vacancy, along with the Washington Wizards, but that will apparently be changing soon.

There has been some steady reporting in the last week-plus that the Pelicans were focusing their search on Suns assistant Willie Green and Bucks assistant Charles Lee, both of whom are, of course, busy with the NBA Finals currently and, as such, the Pelicans can’t make much official until that ends. However, it seems they have made their selection between the two of them, as Fletcher Mackel of WDSU in New Orleans reported Sunday that Green was the choice, although a deal is not yet finalized.

That was confirmed on Monday by conspicuously closely timed tweets from Woj and Shams, who offered the same reporting that Green was the frontrunner and the job would be his so long as he still wants it.

Green, who had a lengthy NBA career with the Sixers, Hawks, Clippers, Magic, and Pelicans, spent time on the Warriors coaching staff from 2016-19 before joining Monty Williams on the bench in Phoenix, where he’s been credited with helping construct the Suns defense. Green was always a well liked and respected player in the locker room, and that ability to connect with players is likely something the Pelicans are banking on with their roster of young stars like Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, mixed with a number of veterans with the hopes of winning sooner than later.

The fallout from the failed January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol will be felt for years to come. The upside is we’ve gotten a very official glimpse into the far-right conspiracy theories and ideology that Donald Trump’s rhetoric helped stoke in recent years.

The latest example comes from courtsey a MAGA rioter who was caught on camera entering the Capitol and threatening at least one member of congress. According to The Daily Beast, a Pennsylvania pizza shop owner named Pauline Bauer is accused of multiple crimes during the attack, including several counts of violent entry, disruptive conduct, and obstruction of Congress. According to the charges, Bauer tried to organize buses to transport people to Washington for the rally and told police inside the Capitol that she wanted to kill Nancy Pelosi.

“Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now,” Bauer reportedly said. “We want to hang that f*cking bitch.”

All of that is disturbing enough, but in her legal filings Bauer is using what experts called “an inadvisable legal strategy”: She recently said she has chosen to represent herself in court while going on on a wild rant about sovereign citizenship.

But in what experts describe as an inadvisable legal strategy, Bauer has demanded to represent herself in court, appeared to threaten a court clerk with prison time, and declared herself a “self-governed individual” with special legal privileges.

Bauer does not simply appear in court, she clarified during a June 11 proceeding via Zoom. “I am here by special divine appearance, a living soul,” she told a judge that day, while stating that she did not want an attorney.

“I do not stand under the law,” she said. “Under Genesis 1, God gave man dominion over the law.”

The sovereign citizen movement is complicated, but it’s essentially an anti-government belief that says they are above any laws and also, of course, should not pay taxes. Which is why actually being arrested and tried for crimes has, well, not exactly jived with her whole deal.

In one document, filed last week, Bauer listed a series of strange alternative spellings of her name in a document that she (incorrectly) claimed freed her from some government control.

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Bauer appears to have attempted multiple avenues of sovereign legal strategy. In one recent filing, she appeared to threaten a court clerk with prison time, noting that it would be the penalty for failing to properly log her filings.

In another new filling, she offered a document that “serves as Proof that my living DNA existed on this Land before there was a UNITED STATES of America or Any STATE Thereof.” The attached document was a family tree showing what Bauer said were ancestors born in Virginia and Pennsylvania before 1776. (Even if accurate, this has no bearing on U.S. law.)

Alas, this is probably unlikely to actually work in her favor. There’s reportedly plenty of evidence that she went to DC, threatened political leaders, and was inside the Capitol. And there’s (of course) evidence on Facebook that she organized transportation to DC through her pizza business. So despite what she may believe, reality isn’t exactly something that can be warped here in her favor.

[via The Daily Beast]

Earlier this month, America missed a goal that should have been easily achieved: President Joe Biden wanted 70% of the nation to have at least one vaccination shot. Republicans, however, think that’s just great — just as reports show that the vast majority of COVID-19 infections and related deaths are happening in places that voted Trump last November. It’s tragic but it’s not surprising. After all, a recent Newsmax segment is only slightly more dangerous than many others beamed across conservative media.

As per The Daily Beast, on Friday, Rob Schmitt, an anchor on the Trump-friendly network, hosted a segment in which he didn’t just call into question the efficacy of vaccines that have been saving lives everywhere they’ve been widely adopted. He also thinks they’re a middle finger to Mother Nature. Or something.

“Obviously, I’m not a doctor,” Schmitt told one Dr. Peter McCullough, a Fox News regular who in the past has spread vaccine misinformation. He then went on to prove what was already clear. On the subject of vaccines, Schmitt said, “I always think about just nature, and the way everything works, and I feel like a vaccination in a weird way is just generally kind of going against nature.”

He then went further. “Like, I mean, if there is some disease out there—maybe there’s just an ebb and flow to life where something’s supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people, and that’s just kind of the way evolution goes,” Schmitt said. “Vaccines kind of stand in the way of that.”

His guest spouted only slightly more rational things, claiming vaccines should only be used by “highest-risk individuals,” not a “young person” like Schmitt, who’s pushing 40.

Schmitt seemed to agree with that. “Again, it’s like if you’ve got this big risk, I think it might be worth whatever it is,” he said. “But if you don’t have a risk, I just, I can’t comprehend why you would take something—they start learning about the heart inflammation and stuff like that. I just don’t understand why it’s being pushed so hard on people that are very young.”

Upon learning of Schmitt’s next-level attempts at demonizing a public health measure, people on social media were horrified. Some took issue with his policework.

Some pointed out that it’s odd to decry vaccinations when the disease it targets is currently targeting Newsmax viewers by a wide margin.

Some even thought it sounded a bit too close to comfort like eugenics.

And some accused the pro-Trump network of taking “own the libs” to a deadly extreme.

Just so we’re all clear of this: Please get vaccinated. There’s no reason to put your life at risk, or those who might contract COVID from you, just because a guy on a channel where they compare a failed blogger to Batman told you so.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Sometimes one little piece of advice can be so powerful it transforms our lives for the better. Many years ago, someone told me that “you can’t change other people, you can only change how you react to them.”

That piece of advice taught me that instead of trying to forcibly change others, I can get them to act differently by changing how I react to them. For example, sometimes ignoring someone’s behavior instead of calling attention to it can get them to change.

Simple psychological hacks are no way to treat serious psychological issues such as anxiety or depression. But they can help us break free from negative patterns, create stronger personal boundaries, and improve our mindfulness.

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Certified Coaching Practitioner Elisabeth Donatella has earned over 500,000 followers and four million likes on TikTok for her simple, but practical self-help videos.

Donatella, who goes by the name Coach Lisy, became interested in coaching after fighting her own internal battles and then deciding to use what she learned to help others.

“As a former self-loathing, people-pleasing perfectionist living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I focused so much of my time and energy obsessing over everything,” she wrote on her website. “I struggled with an eating disorder, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and worst of all, I had severe self-doubt.”

“Four years ago, after I had hit my own personal rock bottom, I decided to make a change,” she continues. “I decided to dedicate my time and energy on learning how to love myself…and, most importantly, accept myself.”

Since, she has completed countless trainings and seminars, including the Robbins-Madanes Training, the official Coach Training School of Tony Robbins.

These days she provides advice on relationships, mindfulness, mental hygiene, and self-awareness on TikTok. Here are 10 of her most powerful self-help tips.

How to stop procrastinating, tip 1: Plan out your day

How to stop procrastinating, tip 2: List the reasons why your activities are important

How to break a bad habit

Your thoughts shape your life

A fixed mindset versus a growth mindset

Witness your thoughts

How to set a boundary

How to deal with unwanted thoughts

Money management tricks

“Because I don’t want to” is a valid reason to say no to anything.

It wouldn’t be a Marvel movie if you didn’t leave the theater wondering what’s next and the studio’s newest film, Black Widow, is no exception. While the bulk of Black Widow takes place prior to Avengers: Endgame — and subsequently leading lady Natasha Romanoff’s heartbreaking exit from Marvel — its final scene sends us to modern-day Marvel and sets some major conflicts in motion.

Following the film’s credits, we see Yelena (now a proud pup parent) drive to Natasha’s grave and mourn her big sister’s death. While the scene is pretty expected, after months of fan outrage following Endgame and its lack of a proper send-off for Black Widow it’s one that is both cathartic and necessary and allows audiences to finally grieve their loss alongside Yelena. However, the emotional moment is soon ruined by none other than Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who you better not call ‘Val’ for short.

For those who watched The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, you might already be familiar with the conniving contessa. If you’re not, first of all, you should give it a watch and secondly, please give this next paragraph a skip until then.

In the Disney+ series, Valentina recruits ex-Captain America John Walker after he’s stripped of the title following his murder of the Flag Smasher Nico. When she approaches him and his wife, she reveals she is a member of an agency interested in working with those possessing superior skills and a lack of enthusiasm for bureaucracy. By the series end, Walker has made the call to join her and is given a new suit and name: U.S. Agent. While this is quite the introduction to someone who is surely going to become a major player during phase four, interestingly enough Black Widow was supposed to be her big reveal before COVID caused a scheduling shuffle — so let’s jump back to it.

In Black Widow, we find out the Contessa is not at Natasha’s grave to mourn the fallen Avenger, but rather to give Yelena her next assignment: eliminating her sister’s “murderer,” Hawkeye. Despite the audience knowing just how things played out on Vormir, Yelena believes Valentina and takes the bait, thus beginning her new quest for revenge. This mission will ultimately take her to the upcoming Disney+ series Hawkeye, where we’ll get to see Yelena back in action — and there’s no telling where her story will go from there.

Beyond that, there are larger implications for this ending. In the comics, Valentina — after working for SHIELD, Hydra, and spending some time as Nick Fury’s lover — helps form JANUS, a secret organization that helped Norman Osborn (Spider-Man villain Green Goblin) rise to power and eventually took control of the Ravencroft Institute. The Ravencroft Institute is similar to DC’s Arkham Asylum and is a facility used to house super-villains undergoing rehabilitation. This could potentially lead to a Sinister Six in the films, which seems likely based on the roster in the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Whether or not we’ll see any other Black Widow characters appear in the MCU is still up in the air, though if David Harbour has his way we might. Either way, we’re very thankful we’ll get even more of Yelena’s sassy quips and appreciation of pockets in Hawkeye this fall.

Stephen A. Smith was the talk of the sports world for all the wrong reasons on Monday, and hours after he sparked outrage on First Take over thoughts about Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim superstar Shohei Ohtani the ESPN personality issued a formal apology on social media.

Smith appeared on camera Monday and bemoaned that Ohtani — who leads the majors in home runs while also being a superstar pitcher for the Angels — is becoming the face of Major League Baseball in spite of the fact that he communicates to English-speaking press using a translator. It was a shockingly xenophobic take to hear in a sports conversation, especially about a clear superstar who is quite literally making baseball a more popular and exciting sport with each swing and pitch.

In the initial outrage, Smith tried to clarify his words and defend his statements as not insensitive and xenophobic. Later Monday night, however, Smith posted a message to Twitter saying “I’m sincerely sorry” and detailing how he needed to apologize before

“As an African-American, keenly aware of the damage stereotyping has done to many in this community, it should’ve elevated my sensitivities even more,” Smith wrote in part. “Based on my words, I failed in that regard and it’s on me, and me alone.”

Smith noted the uptick in violence against Asian-Americans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and dangerous rhetoric from political figures in recent months. He also apologized to Ohtani specifically, making it clear to say “I screwed up” and apologizing several times. Smith also said he plans to readdress his comments on Tuesday’s edition of First Take.

Hopefully when that’s done, he can help the show address Ohtani’s Home Run Derby performance and the excitement behind the All-Star starting on the mound and leading off in the showcase in Denver. One of Smith’s big points in his misguided rant on Monday is that his own show doesn’t talk about Ohtani too often. But after an apology, that would certainly be a good place to start.

Vanessa Bayer has long been a scene-stealer. For much of the teens, she was one of the strongest members of SNL, and a pro at Weekend Update stints. She stood out in everything from Trainwreck to I Think You Should Leave to Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar. And now she’s about to go next level: As per Variety, Showtime just doled out a series order to I Love This for You, a show she co-created that’s inspired by her own life.

The series is inspired by Bayer’s childhood battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, with which she was diagnosed at age 15. She has long spoken about how using comic relief helped get her through her ordeals. According to Variety, Bayer will play “a woman looking to shed her past cancer identity and dreaming of becoming a host at a home-shopping channel.” After moving out from her parents’ home, she winds up befriending the star of a home shopping channel, played by Molly Shannon.

The half-hour comedy was picked up to pilot back in 2019, but it hasn’t received a full run till now. At one point it was to feature Cybill Shepherd as the eccentric billionaire who runs the channel, but after scheduling conflicts, she’s out and the role will be replaced. But the promise of much more Bayer can only be a good thing.

(Via Variety)

There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating on multiple levels, and the upheaval in all of our lives has had an impact. But a new poll from Gallup shows that the U.S. in general is well into recovering from the worst of it, with more Americans reporting that they are “thriving” than at any point during the 13 years since Gallup started measuring.

Gallup’s Live Evaluation Index measures how well Americans feel about their lives, asking people to rank their current and future life on a ladder scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the worst possible life you could imagine for yourself and 10 being the best possible life you could imagine. Those who rank their current life at 7 or above and their future life at 8 or above are considered “thriving.”

The percentage of Americans who are “thriving” reached 59.2% in June, eclipsing the previous high of 57.3% set in September 2017, and far exceeding the pandemic low of 46.4 in April 2020, which was tied for the lowest measurement during the financial crisis in November 2008.

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Interestingly, the percentage of Americans who are estimated to be “suffering” according to the scale hasn’t changed much during the pandemic. In June, 3.4% of respondents fell into the “suffering” category, which is in line with pre-COVID levels.

In addition to a spike in life satisfaction, levels of daily stress and worry have recovered to pre-COVID levels as well. According to Gallup:

“The percentage of people who reported experiencing significant stress and worry “a lot of the day yesterday” showed unprecedented increases in the first half of March 2020, with stress rising 14 percentage points to 60% and worry rising 20 points to 58%. These spikes were about four times greater than what was measured over the course of 2008 as a result of the Great Recession. Reports of experiencing these emotions have subsequently fallen to pre-pandemic levels in both cases. Daily stress eased to 45% in January and has remained in the mid-40s since, while daily worry has declined further since the start of the year, to just 38% in April through June, down from 43% in January.”

Gallup also reports that “daily enjoyment” is up, though it hasn’t yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

What does all of this mean? The most obvious and logical explanation is that the vaccine rollouts and economic numbers since the beginning of the year have given people a dose of hope and optimism. It may also have to do with the fact that most—not all, defintiely, but a majority of—Americans actually got richer during the pandemic.

Gallup also credits the fact that more of us are able to gather with friends and family again:

“Beyond the vaccination rollout and improving economic conditions, though, is the critical psychological benefit of renewed social interaction. Reuniting in person with family and friends and joining in large gatherings of people such as at sporting events is a crucial part of social wellbeing. Past research has shown that those who spend six to seven hours a day in social time experience about one-fifth the stress and worry on any given day as those with no social time at all. These effects are likely on display as the levels of these negative emotions have improved to pre-pandemic levels in recent months.”

Of course, these rosy numbers don’t mean all is well for everyone. Some people are still struggling with the economic and emotional impact of the pandemic, and some groups of people have been hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19. With 600,000+ Americans lost to the virus, millions of us are mourning loved ones, and despite jobs coming back, our unemployment numbers are still higher than we’d like them to be.

But the fact that more Americans say they’re “thriving” than at any time over the past 13 years is a positive sign that the country is headed in the right direction.

There was a brief period, some five years back, when the world gave Mel Gibson yet another chance. He was even Oscar-nominated for directing a hit film. But people soon remembered what got the former A-list actor “canceled” in the first place: He has some, shall we say, controversial opinions. And so, few were surprised on Monday when video surfaced of him not only warmly greeting the even more divisive Donald J. Trump, but actually saluting him.

The former Mad Max was one of a number of celebrities who attended the UFC fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirer on Saturday night. Justin Bieber was there. So was Jared Leto. The Paul brothers. So was the 45th president, who the following evening would brag to a crowd of hooting Republicans that he was impeached twice.

Gibson wisely steered clear of politics during the Trump administration, perhaps sensing that he didn’t need to give people another reason to hate his guts. But on Saturday, as the fuzzy video shows, he apparently couldn’t contain himself, flamboyantly honoring a man accused of encouraging his supporters to violently storm the Capitol and attempt to overturn an election he lost.

But given his many other beliefs, people weren’t surprised that Gibson may be a Trump stan.

Others found the salute weird. (Neither man, incidentally, ever served in the U.S. military, and the latter was quoted calling soldiers who died for their country “losers” and “suckers.”)

Even seeing his name trending, people assumed things weren’t great.

Thus concludes yet another in a long series of disappointing discoveries for people who thought his take on Hamlet wasn’t that bad.

Mother Jones recently detailed how healthcare workers are not immune to falling prey to online misinformation, and now a young nurse who openly declared her skepticism to getting vaccinated has reportedly died after contracting Covid-19.

Olivia Guidry was a registered nurse at Ochsner Lafayette General. She worked in the hospital’s emergency department and was diagnosed with COVID in early July. Despite her medical background, Guidry had expressed skepticism concerning the Covid-19 vaccine on social media. In posts she made on Twitter, the young nurse questioned whether the government was using the vaccine as some sort of “social experiment” and made claims that mRNA technology — the kind employed in both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines — “manipulates your DNA” at the “molecular level.”

Neither claim is true, but Guidry’s posts represent a wide-held belief by anti-vaxxers who have been spreading this type of misinformation leading to lower vaccination rates and rising cases of virus variants.

It’s not clear which variant Guidry contracted in early July, but according to social media posts from her sister, Guidry spiked a fever and suffered seizures before being placed in a medically-induced coma on Thursday. By Saturday, she had died. Guidry’s friends, family, and co-workers took to social media to express their shock and sadness at the news with many praising her abilities as a nurse and describing her as a “sweet soul.”

Guidry leaves behind her sister and her two parents, both of whom may have also contracted COVID. The family is asking for donations to help with the unexpected funeral costs while a vigil is being planned for her friends and coworkers.

(Via The Advocate)