Month: September 2021

In case you forgot how terrible of a boss former President Donald Trump was during his time in office, here’s an anecdote to remind you.

According to a new book (via Business Insider) from Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Trump constantly unleashed on his top advisors but, one of the worst profanity-laced blow-ups was directed at former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who told Trump he couldn’t use the military to quell protests over George Floyd’s death last summer. Trump reportedly wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy troops to squash any Black Lives Matter protests happening during that time. In particular, he wanted to use the 82nd Airborne division — a special crisis response unit that often parachutes into hostile areas and does not normally engage with civil disturbances.

Obviously, letting loose some elite paramilitary guys on peaceful protesters would have been a terrible decision, so Esper shut it down before it could even become a consideration. During a press conference that took place just a day before this alleged blow-up, Esper told reporters he didn’t support the Insurrection Act saying that the military “should only be used as a matter of last resort, and in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He then reportedly got a call from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows warning him that Trump was “really pissed” and was “going to eat your face off.”

The next day, when Esper met with Trump in the Oval Office, the twice-impeached president lost it, screaming at Esper, “you took away my authority!” Esper then produced a transcript of his remarks to the press to prove he wasn’t trying to undermine the president which only served to enrage Trump more.

“I don’t give a f*ck about your fucking transcript!” Trump shouted, before addressing the rest of his team. “You’re all f*cked up! Everybody! You’re all f*cked. Every one of you is f*cked up!”

Apparently, Esper wasn’t the only official displeased with Trump’s response to the social unrest. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also angry over how Trump had used both men for a photo opp in front of St. John’s church in D.C. The former president was dragged through the press for using federal agents to clear the plaza of protesters with tear gas and violent force. According to the book, Milley called the whole thing “f*cked up,” and told his aides he was “done with this sh*t.”

Talk about a toxic work environment.

(Via Business Insider)

A little over a month after its release in theaters and on HBO Max, Warner Bros. has dropped a new gag reel for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and it’s almost as funny as the movie itself. Peppered with actors struggling not to break character, the blooper reel includes an equal amount of hilarious candid moments for the film’s major stars Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, and John Cena, who was apparently willing to stick anything in his mouth during filming. (You’ll know the moment when you see it.)

Flula Borg, who played Javelin in the film, also gets a moment to shine thanks to his weapon refusing to cooperate, which leaves Robbie unable to keep a straight face. He also gets a solid bit in the end as the real “star” of the film.

For fans looking for more of Gunn’s take on the classic DC Comics villain squad, he recently wrapped production on Peacemaker, which will focus on Cena’s character during a time we won’t mention because it’s a spoiler. However, Gunn has teased that other members of The Suicide Squad could appear in the spinoff series including a character who the director revealed is not as dead as they looked in the film.

Peacemaker will start streaming in January on HBO Max, and if you missed The Suicide Squad the first time around, it will hit home video on October 26.

(Via Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Invasive species are, well, our fault. If you’re a human reading this, at some point your ancestors probably thought taking a tree or animal from one place and putting it somewhere else was a harmless idea. Someone planted bamboo on Cape Cod and thought nothing could go wrong. Zebra muscles make water cleaner, that’s good for the Great Lakes, right?

Wrong!

The rest of humankind’s time on this once-greener earth will be spent attempting to undo our worst mistakes, and according to scientists it is now your task to kill every last lanternfly you see. As a story in the New York Times detailed, the spotted lanternfly is an invasive species from Asia that’s currently causing trouble in the northest. And despite its oddly buggy beauty, it needs to f*cking die.

The story begins with a man in New York frantically squishing these creatures that he saw in the city, which sounds morbid but soon becomes clear is for good reason: it’s a threat to a bunch of plants and they seem to reproduce rapidly.

Mr. Biollo understood that the lanternfly is a problem for many reasons, but mostly because it zealously feeds on the sap of more than 70 plant species, leaving them susceptible to disease and destruction from other natural antagonists, threatening to set back the fight against climate change. In Pennsylvania, the issue is taken so seriously that the state issued a Spotted Lanternfly Order of Quarantine and Treatment, which imposes fines and even potential criminal penalties on anyone who intentionally moves the bug, at any stage of its life, from one sort of location to another via “recreational vehicles, tractors, mowers, grills” as well as “tarps, mobile homes, tile, stone, deck boards” or “fire pits.”

The insects hop and fly only short distances, but they move with ease and reproduce maniacally. “They can hitch a ride on a baseball cap in the back of your car,” Ronnit Bendavid-Val, the director of horticulture at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, told me. “I can’t think of something they don’t lay their eggs on — cloth, metal, furniture, sides of buildings and of course trees.” There are no natural predators that go after them, no organic pesticides to shut down their operation, so “if you see one, “squish it,” Ms. Bendavid-Val said, “that’s the message.”

The story is a bit more nuanced than pure bloodlust, but it’s a good starting point if you actually want to help keep the planet alive. Which is why social media had a lot of fun with the direct order to end life for the greater good.

Even the New York City Parks twitter account is cheering on murder.

Some actually did have helpful advice though.

In any event, good luck with all that murdering out there. Know you’re doing far more to stop climate change with every stomp than most major companies.

[via NY Times]

“Ball-gate” just stopped being funny. Nicki Minaj, who has been under fire for spreading anti-vaccine misinformation over the past week, is now doxxing and threatening a reporter who reached out to her relatives in Trinidad for comment on the story. Nicki posted photos and shared the WhatsApp phone number of the reporter on her Instagram Story, calling the reporter “a dirty hoe” and claiming that her family is hiding out from reporters.

Nicki shared WhatsApp screenshots of the conversation via her cousin in which the texter identifies themselves as a Guardian reporter named Sharlene Rampersad and asks whether he’s the cousin Nicki referred to in the original tweet. Although there’s no way to confirm that the text actually came from the named reporter, the texter asks to speak with Nicki’s cousin, and if possible the friend whose wedding was supposedly canceled due to adverse reactions to a COVID vaccine, as Nicki’s original tweet suggested.

However, this reporter crosses a line by intimating that a competing outlet, CNN, is also pursuing an interview. The texter suggests that CNN would reveal personal information about the cousin — something against the journalistic integrity policy of any legitimate news outlet — and assuring that the Guardian would not. Aside from being the dirtiest of dirty pool, this sort of thing isn’t common practice at most outlets and is actually against the law in many jurisdictions.

Nicki, interpreting this messaging as a threat, went off, posting the WhatsApp phone number that reached out to her cousin, as well as two photos of the reporter. Screenshots can be seen below.

While Nicki certainly has a right to be upset at the unsolicited contact, there’s 1. no proof that the texter actually is this person, and 2. absolutely no call to violate a person’s privacy to her 157 million Instagram followers, many of whom have previously shown a penchant for cyberbullying people just for sharing their unfavorable opinions of her latest singles. While Nicki insists that she’s being targeted for “asking questions,” the truth of the matter remains: The “questions” she’s asking have already been answered several times over, and her spreading misinformation is a dangerous tactic that could very well get more people hurt. The COVID-19 coronavirus has killed well over 650,000 people and conspiracy theories only harm the distribution of vaccines meant to save lives.

However, if the person who reached out to her relations really is the named reporter, then shame on her as well for violating so many tenets of journalistic integrity in the pursuit of a quote. She should, however, be reprimanded by her employer, not terrorized by online vigilantes at the behest of an angry musician — especially not one distracting from the serious work being done to combat the spread of a deadly pandemic.

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, a.k.a. The Mountain from Game of Thrones, always looked like he could cave your head in. But now he looks like he could cave your head in — and run a 5k afterwards.

The former-World’s Strangest Man has lost a ton of weight as part of his transition from strongman contests to boxing. “I’m extremely happy with my shape right now,” he said back in May. “When I started this journey, I weighed (451 pounds). And now I’m down to (341 pounds).” His journey involved eating lots of chicken, like his on-screen brother.

Bjornsson worked hard to rebuild his body, cutting his daily calorie intake from 10,000 calories to “just” 4,000 and ramping up his cardio with the goal of maintaining muscle while getting lean. It’s safe to say he succeeded: Recent photos of Bjornsson show him looking relatively shredded — especially for a guy who is still 6’9″ and 355 pounds — with a visible six-pack that stands in stark contrast to the bulkier physique of his strongman days.

Björnsson showed off his before-and-after photos on Instagram ahead of his “Heaviest Boxing Match in History” this weekend against fellow strongman Eddie Hall. “What one word describes these six pictures?” he captioned the post. Let’s have a look:

I can think of a few. “Shredded.” “Ripped.” “Jacked.” “Yoked.” Take your pick.

(Via Instagram)

A franchise we’ve seen make a somewhat surprising return recently is Destroy All Humans. The comedic third-person shooter/open-world game hadn’t had a new game since 2008 and there wasn’t too much of a push to bring it back. It always fell somewhere in the realm of enjoyable, but not really beloved. Even so, THQ Nordic decided to remake the first game and release it in 2020. Obviously, it was a success, because development has moved forward on a remake of the second game as well.

Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed was announced during THQ Nordic’s 10th-anniversary stream. It featured a comedic trailer meant to highlight the lite tone the franchise likes to take in its game where you’re an alien invading during the 1960s. Since it’s the 60s’ that means we’re going to get plenty of stereotypes from the era including drug references, hippies, and the cold war.

These games have always been a fun time because of the fact that they don’t take themselves too seriously. They’re fun romps with weird weapons, quirky characters, and a setting that works surprisingly well. Feelings on the first remake were that they didn’t do too much to help it stand out from the original, but it was nice to be able to play it again. This second game will likely do the same. It may even do better than the first as it’s usually considered the superior game between the two.

In a new Instagram video shared with his fans on Friday, actor Demore Barnes reveals that he has no idea why his character is exiting Law & Order: SVU. Barnes played Christian Garland, the first Black Deputy Chief in SVU history, and was made a series regular in Season 21. However, earlier in the month, it was announced that Barnes’ character would not be back for the upcoming Season 23. According to his message on Instagram, the news was a complete surprise to him, too.

Via Deadline:

“While I know you were happy that I was here, and that I’m happy that I was here, I also know you’re sad and surprised and I am too,” Barnes admitted in an Instagram post addressed to his fans and the SVU audience. “I don’t totally know why this happened.”

Despite being caught off guard that he will not be returning to SVU, Barnes had nothing but positive things to say about his experience, which he hopes will benefit other actors of color. The actor also expressed his love for his character Chief Garland.

“I hope that Wolf Entertainment’s leadership, in giving me opportunity amplify vital voice and story, will result in many studios continuing to open doors of opportunities for others to do the same,” Barnes said in the video. “This must continue.”

(Via Demore Barnes on Instagram)

Everybody Loves Raymond‘s long run on CBS was not without its mistakes. The life of a sportswriter, for one, is far more depressing and full of hot takes than the one Ray Romano portrayed in the suburbs of New York City. But years after the show left the air, its showrunner revealed that one big change was pitched for the show that almost made him quit altogether.

As Yahoo Entertainment detailed, the show’s nine-season run garnered plenty of praise from viewers and critics. But as showrunner Phil Rosenthal detailed, the sitcom got a big note from CBS during its casting process that nearly ended things before they got started. Romano’s Ray had a wife played by Patricia Heaton in the show that made it to air. But what CBS had in mind was much more cliche.

“CBS wanted someone hotter to play Debra,” he says, referring to the ’90s sitcom cliché where the schlubby male leads were routinely married to runway-ready women. (That eye-rolling convention was skewered in the recent AMC series Kevin Can F*** Himself, starring Annie Murphy.) “I almost quit the show over it.”

Rosenthal made it clear that note came before Heaton had even auditioned for the part, but the note was clearly leaning into the stereotype seen across many shows in the 90s and early 2000s. It turns out the network had another actress in mind that Rosenthal made sure to keep nameless, but it didn’t go anything like the network or actress hoped.

“They insisted on this actress. I thought she was wrong, but I met with her and she was a very pleasant, very nice person. She wasn’t going to read for the role, but during the meeting I convinced her to read a little bit with me, and she was 10 times worse for the part than I thought she would be!”

Rosenthal said that he was prepared to quit over the casting decision if it were forced upon him, namely from CBS president Les Moonves, who clearly held a lot of sway over the process. But it apparently didn’t come to that: Rosenthal stood his ground, and eventually Heaton came to read for the part and the rest was history.

When Moonves asked, “What about so-and-so,” Rosenthal gave him the only answer he could — the truth. “I said, ‘I love her and I’ve loved everything she’s been in. I think she’s terrific and beautiful, but then she read for me and I have to tell you it’s just not what I wrote. I just don’t see them as a couple. I think she could do it, but I also think that maybe we could do better. [Moonves] said, ‘Well, it’s just an idea.’ In other words, he let me slide and we agreed to keep looking! Two weeks later, Patty walked in and within five minutes she had the part. When it’s right, it’s right, and you know it immediately.”

Heaton clearly thrived in the role she landed as Romano’s TV wife, so it’s good things worked out the way they did for everyone involved. It’s hard to imagine Everybody Loves Raymond being nearly as successful without Heaton and Rosenthal involved, but we’ll always wonder just who came in and read so poorly that it opened the door for Heaton to get the gig.

TMZ reports that Miami rapper SpotemGottem is recovering in a Florida hospital after being shot multiple times while driving on the I-95 early this morning. The rapper told police he was being driven south on the highway when someone in another car began shooting at his car, hitting his driver in the hip and wounding Spotem, who was sitting in the passenger seat, in both legs. All told, the report says at least 22 shots were fired, likely from an automatic weapon. Both men were taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police believe the incident to be a case of road rage.

Meanwhile, SpotemGottem faces a list of weapons-related charges himself after being arrested in Aventura, Florida in July. Federal Marshalls served an aggravated assault warrant stemming from a June incident in which the rapper and some friends allegedly threatened a parking lot attendant with a semiautomatic weapon. Spotem allegedly had a Draco AK-47 lying next to him on the bed at the time of his arrest, adding a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Fans on social media noted the irony of today’s incident; Spotem’s name is a reference to locating an enemy and shooting him on sight, while his best-known hit, “Beat Box,” is about, you guessed it, what his gun sounds like when it’s firing. The popular song has since been remixed by a number of stars including Latto, NLE Choppa, and Polo G.

In his new single “Rucci,” Pontiac, Michigan-born rapper DDG brags that he “made a million dollars off a screen,” setting himself apart from a common rap narrative. And although he’s proud of his accomplishments, he also boasts that were he to dip into selling drugs like some of his contemporaries, he’d be just as good as that. The new single’s release was paired with a music video that dropped just a few hours later in which the rapper shows off some of his home art, cars, and female companions.

“Rucci” follows a string of standalone singles released in the wake of his breakout joint tape with OG Parker, Die 4 Respect. While that release helped earn him the notice of XXL‘s 2021 Freshman Class, he’s apparently been looking forward to his next project, a follow-up to his 2019 debut album Valedictorian. In addition to “Rucci,” DDG recently shared videos for “Midwest Flow,” “Lusted,” and “If I Go Broke” in the past month, showing a hustle that isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Earlier this summer, DDG became one of Uproxx’s cover artists, as well as sharing a performance of his song “Hood Melody” on UPROXX Sessions and offering his thoughts on Blueface for How I Blew Up.

Watch DDG’s “Rucci” above.