Nearly two years after first being identified, the COVID-19 virus is still spreading at an alarming rate, and mutating new variants around the world. While we still don’t know much about the omicron variant, scientists are working quickly to figure out just how effective our current vaccines will be in fighting against it. Meanwhile, a couple of Fox News pundits and some seriously unhinged conspiracy theorists think this new strain of the virus is just a scare tactic invented by the Democrats in order to scare up some more votes.
Jimmy Kimmel laid into these “right wingnuts” on Monday night’s show, as he noted that:
“Omicron has been declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization. Experts are hoping it ends up being like the second season of Tiger King, where everybody talks about it, but no one actually experiences it. But, of course, the right wingnuts have a theory on this: Their theory is that this variant is some kind of ploy concocted by the Democrats to help them win elections.”
It doesn’t help that people like Ronny Jackson, who served as the White House Doctor to both Barack Obama and Donald Trump and is now a Texas congressman, is fueling these wild conspiracy theories by dubbing what could be a deadly new strain of COVID the “Midterm Election Variant,” recklessly tweeting that Democrats “NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots” and “will do anything to CHEAT during an election.”
Here comes the MEV – the Midterm Election Variant! They NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots. Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election – but we’re not going to let them!
Kimmel couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi getting together to develop omicron, and pointed out that it seemed like Jackson “was maybe giving them too much credit. Do you think Democrats are that organized? I mean, they can’t even get Joe Manchin to support maternity leave. I don’t think they’re creating viruses.”
Kimmel was particularly bothered by the fact that these ideas were being spun into the public consciousness by a former White House physician—“a man who had Obama and Trump’s testicles in the palms of his hands. He’s just making up crazy stuff; that’s our world now.”
You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 3:20 mark.
Fox News has said some, um, interesting things about Dr. Anthony Fauci since the beginning of the pandemic. Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade claimed that he “doesn’t take into account the psychological damage done by not going to school” and demanded that he “let America get back to being America,” while “performatively outraged wedge salad” Tucker Carlson thinks Fauci “created COVID” (Fauci’s response: “The people who weaponize lies are killing people”).
But if you think that’s wild, wait until you hear from Lara Logan.
On Monday, the once-respected reporter appeared on Fox News Primetime, where she compared Fauci to Josef Mengel, the so-called “Angel of Death” doctor for the Nazis. “What you see on Dr. Fauci, this is what people say to me, that he doesn’t represent science to them,” she said (that’s some grade-A Trump speak right there). “He represents Josef Mengele. Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews during the Second World War and in the concentration camps.”
Logan continued, “Because the response from COVID. What it has done to countries everywhere. What it has done to civil liberties. The suicide rates. The poverty. It has obliterated economies. The level of suffering that has been created because of this disease is now being seen in cold light of day, i.e. the truth, and people see there is no justification for what is being done.” With this ridiculous (and dangerous) comparison, Logan is essentially endorsing the violent threats that have been made against Fauci, including one man who was arrested for sending graphic emails to the doctor.
And that’s i.e. the truth. You can watch the clip below.
Fox host Lara Logan says that people tell her that Dr. Fauci doesn’t represent science, but represents Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor known as the “Angel of Death” for performing medical experiments at Auschwitz: “I am talking about people all across the world are saying this” pic.twitter.com/fF2DAWfG7d
Amy Schneider achieved ‘Jeopardy!’ champ status during Trans Awareness Week, and she’s already knocked out a historic milestone.
Schneider, a transgender woman who hails from Oakland, California, ejected a five-time champ and has kept her own winning streak going for nine games (so far) while gathering over $342,000 in winnings. In the process, she’s revealed that there’s only one thing that really “sucks” about winning (and that thing makes her a pretty awesome winner), and she’s also made an on-screen subtle gesture to the trans community (on the Thanksgiving day episode). Her victories continue, and she’s already knocked out some history in the process.
Following up on Kate Freeman’s status as the first openly transgender champ (in 2020), Amy has become the first trans contestant to qualify for the show’s annual “Tournament Of Champions.” So even if Amy’s winning streak ends, she’ll be back to go head-to-head with other champs in the future. Via ABC 7 News in Los Angeles, Schneider reflected on that milestone and revealed one reason why she was inspired to keep aiming for contestant status (and she nailed it on the third interview):
“Once I got to episodes three and four, I knew the fifth one was in sight,” she said. “Once I got it, it was a great feeling, mostly because I was having fun and I didn’t want to stop. By qualifying for the fifth one, I knew I would come back.
“I am from Ohio where the only trans people I thought of were drag queens or prostitutes,” she said. “Seeing other trans women in a good spotlight inspired me to not be afraid of trying to compete in the thing I have always loved.”
Amy added that she grew up watching Jeopardy!, and she hopes that she can set an example for future contestants/champs. “I am so incredibly grateful,” she told ABC 7. “Hopefully I can send a positive message to the nerdy trans girl who wants to be on the show too.” Her post-game tweets might be slower for a few days, though, since Amy (unfortunately) burned her hand in the kitchen. Best wishes for some speedy healing.
Update: I burned my hand while cooking. It’ll be fine, but typing is going to be difficult at least tonight, and possibly tomorrow, so I may not post for a bit, sorry!
I’m glad I wasn’t tasked with reviewing Peter Jackson’s eight-hour Lords Of The Rock documentary. How do you quickly assess a movie in which there’s twice as many hours as Fab Four’s? I feel like I’ll be regularly dipping in and out of this for as long as I keep my Disney+ subscription. (I assume a Blu-Ray with — dare I say it — additional previously unseen footage will soon be made available for certifiable Beatles lunatics like yours truly?) But here’s my immediate impression: This is the greatest depiction of a band’s inner life — how they work, how they interact, how they grow apart while always feeling like a tight-knit family — ever put on film. It’s hard for me to think of another film that even comes close. Maybe Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster? Though that 2004 film by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky is “only” 141 minutes and documents the making of a minor album. In Get Back, we see the creation of future rock classics like “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Let It Be” unfold in real time — the initial flash of inspiration, the lyrical dead ends, the arrangement choices not taken, the moment when the songs we all know by heart appear to suddenly (miraculously!) fall into place. (And then there’s the film director who won’t shut up already about Libya. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, you come off like a dope!) Most incredibly, there’s the scene from Part 1 in which Paul McCartney aimlessly strums his bass until he slowly discovers the skeleton of “Get Back,” one of the most illuminating depictions of the creative process I’ve ever seen. As it is, I can’t relate to anyone who feels this is “too much” Beatles. John and George are gone now, forever. Paul and Ringo are deep into their twilight years. In that context, eight hours of an immersive “hangout” experience with the greatest rock band ever feels, if anything, rapidly fleeting, like the most beautiful sunset in mankind’s history sinking too fast into the horizon. Even now, I’m left wanting more.
2. Big Thief, “Time Escaping”
The jamband-ification of Big Thief continued this month with this excellent single from their forthcoming double album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, due out Feb. 11. I am, of course, fully on board with one of the best indie bands on the planet sounding like a cross of Blind Melon and Billy Breathes. And I’m, ahem, high on the new bountiful LP, the promo of which I’ve been spinning regularly for the past few weeks. Beyond that, I should keep my mouth shut until closer to the release.
3. Nation Of Language,A Way Forward
I’m still catching up with young bands who had the misfortune of putting out debut albums in the shadow of the pandemic in 2020. One of my fave “Class of 2020” groups is this Brooklyn outfit, who make moody synth-rock in the mold of early Depeche Mode and Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark. Their first album released last year, Introduction, Presence, spotlighted these millennials’ close studying of delectably ancient keyboard tones. But this year’s A Way Forward ups the ante on songwriting, with tracks like “Across That Fine Line” and “The Grey Commute” leaning into their burgeoning pop grandiosity.
4. Neal Francis, In Plain Sight
Here’s an album I’ve enjoyed listening to this month, but I expect to love once barbecue season rolls around again in the spring of 2022. Born Neal Francis O’Hara, Francis is a recovering child prodigy who toured Europe in his teens and then fell into addiction. After cleaning himself up, he re-emerged with a throwback big-band sound that recalls the highs of 1970s funk and swamp rock — lovers of Dr. John, Leon Russell, and The Meters will immediately feel at home amid Francis’ fat-bottomed, bluesy bangers.
5. Snail Mail, Valentine
On the first Snail Mail record, 2018’s Lush, Lindsey Jordan focused almost solely on guitar, to the point of aligning herself with indie “shredders” like Kurt Vile and Steve Gunn. But on Valentine, she’s expanded her musical palate significantly, layering her songs with keyboards and strings in a manner consistent with “mature sophomore efforts” from young indie phenoms. For Jordan, the grown-up, MOR indie of Valentine is a subtle hint that she’s no longer a precocious wunderkind of Lush, and therefore shouldn’t be fetishized solely for her youth or confessional lyrics. And yet Valentine isn’t fully grown up, just as nobody at 22 is fully grown up. Jordan still portrays herself in these latest songs as a person who falls in love a little too hard, and then has to deal with the consequences when things fall apart. This, of course, is the most “young person” subject matter imaginable. (She apparently wrote the songs for Valentine back at her childhood bedroom in Baltimore.)
6. Courtney Barnett, Things Take Time, Take Time
Is she underrated now? At the time of Sometimes I Just Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, Barnett seemed like the next great indie singer-songwriter. But now that indie rock is awash in guitar-slinging memoirists of a slightly younger generational vintage, Barnett seems a little taken for granted. It’s true that Things Take Time, Take Time doesn’t vary radically from her previous work. About half of the songs sound like “Avant Gardner,” and about half of the songs resemble “Depreston.” This is “merely” another collection of witty and winsome mid-tempo rockers with guitar solos that slowly rise from the malaise like a layabout peeling off the couch for a graveyard shift at a dead-end service job. But Barnett is still really, really good at this. In five years, people are going to wonder why this album was slept on.
As someone who would gladly buy a box set compiling every live version of “The Diamond Sea” performed by Sonic Youth during the Washing Machine era, I see this new archival release as a step in the right direction. Though, if I have to quibble, a “Sea” that is “only” about 14 minutes feels kinda skimpy. The album version is actually about five minutes longer. Can the powers that be at Sonic Youth HQ work on getting our “Diamond Sea” stats up, please? Fourteen minutes are rookie numbers. We need many more minutes, if not hours, of blissed-out distortion.
8. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts
Only in a month in which an eight-hour Beatles documentary dropped would this incredible new live record and concert film from the Boss be overshadowed on the classic-rock part of my brain. But this really is a momentous release for Bruce heads, capturing him at an absolute sweet spot — one year after the fire-spitting fury of the Darkness On The Edge Of Town era (still my favorite Springsteen tour of all time), and one year before the release of one of his greatest albums, The River. Some of those songs are previewed here, including the desolate title track, which gets its live debut (!) in front of an appropriately stunned audience at Madison Square Garden. But the album (which compiles both No Nukes benefit shows) and film don’t dwell long on doleful ballads. This is Bruce at the height of his arena-rock powers, playing hard and long (though not as long as usual) in front of a band determined to kick as much ass as possible. The back half is especially supercharged, in which the band tears through a Stone Pony-approved collection of rock and soul oldies as well as the unbeatable live war horse “Rosalita.” Whereas Get Back is leavened with an air of melancholy, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts is a blast of pure joy. Play it loud.
Before doing so, Gaga says, “Tony, we’re all so grateful to have witnessed your talent, your generosity, your creativity, and your kindness, your service through all the years.” After pausing for applause, Gaga added, “Mr. Bennett, it would be my honor to escort you off the stage.”
Bennett gave a quiet “thank you” and nodded subtly as he gazed over the cheering crowd. Gaga then kissed the singer’s hand, locked arms with him, and walked as Bennett smiled and waved to the audience.
The Radio City Music Hall concerts were full of special moments, like one Gaga told Anderson Cooper about last month: “For the first couple of weeks that I saw Tony since COVID, he called me ‘Sweetheart.’ But I wasn’t sure he knew who I was. [Radio City Music Hall was] the first time that Tony said my name in a long time. I had to keep it together, because we had a sold-out show, and I have a job to do. But I’ll tell you, when I walked out on that stage, and he said, ‘It’s Lady Gaga,’ my friend saw me. And it was very special.”
It’s been a helluva year for London’s emerging seven-piece band Black Country, New Road. Released in February, their debut album For The First Time was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize given to the best album in the UK. They’ve wasted no time in keeping the momentum going by announcing their follow-up album, Ants From Up There, out in Febraury of next year.
The first two tracks from Ants, have seen them exploring the similarly chaotic punk of their debut on “Chaos Space Marine,” and then given way to the more doleful sounds of “Bread Song.” But on their latest track, “Concorde,” the group present a bustling folk arrangement that gets spritelier with the band’s signature horn section, and progressively builds into a bigger and bigger cathartic outpouring of emotions. Their best offering of new material yet, the six-minute “Concorde” is a deeper look into what this budding group is capable of and flashes a new dynamic wrinkle in their repertoire.
Listen to “Concorde” above and look out for Black Country, New Road as they embark on their first-ever North America headlining tour in 2022. Check out those tour dates below and grab tickets here.
02/19/2022 — Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
02/22/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Sultan Room, Turk’s Inn
02/23/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
02/25/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
02/26/2022 — Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
02/28/2022 — Detroit, MI @ Third Man Records
03/01/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
03/03/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Barboza
03/03/2022 — Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
03/05/2022 — Arcata, CA @ The Miniplex, Richard’s Goat Tavern
03/06/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
03/08/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
03/09/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Regent Theater
Ants From Up There is out 2/4/2022 via Ninja Tune. Pre-order it here.
But despite all she’s accomplished in her career, part of Riri’s heart will also be in her native Barbados. She’s always kept her roots there, returning for different festivals every year and making sure people know she hasn’t forgotten where she’s from. Well, tonight she’s also back in Barbados to help celebrate a very historic moment in the country’s history: officially becoming a republic. You see, in the past, Barbados was a royal colony, but they’ve opted to self-govern. But Barbados will still remain part of the greater commonwealth, despite their newfound independence.
Catch a glimpse of Rihanna’s appearance at the ceremony below, and keep an eye out for her own thoughts on the transition, likely to appear on social media in the next few days.
Rihanna is in Barbados as the island country is officially declared a republic pic.twitter.com/zE4zwjYeRm
The Houston Rockets are riding a three-game winning streak after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second time this season on Monday night. While much of the national conversation about Houston has focused on the John Wall situation, where he wants to return but in a starting role while the team wants him to come off the bench, the Rockets are quietly starting to look like a more competitive team with wins over the Bulls, Hornets, and Thunder in succession.
Christian Wood is leading the way, but Kevin Porter Jr. is also showing positive signs at the point guard position, as he’s averaging over 10 assists per game in the three-game streak. On Monday, he recorded his first career triple-double with 11 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds — the last of which took some serious effort on the part of he and his teammates.
With just over a minute to play, the Rockets worked extremely hard to get Porter his 10th board, with Alperen Sengun trying to tap the ball to Porter, Jae’Sean Tate then standing by the bouncing ball while Josh Christopher screams at KPJ to come get the ball.
The hometown scorer gave Porter Jr. credit for the rebound to get that triple-double, but we’ll see if that gets reviewed by the league. In any case, it’s some incredible teamwork to get Porter to a statistical milestone of his first triple-double and, for that, we must commend them. It’s not quite Ricky Davis missing a layup on the wrong basket on purpose, but it’s certainly the spiritual successor to Davis’ legendary attempt at getting himself a triple-double.
Things have been a little awkward for Chris Cuomo for a while now. On the one hand, he has a weeknight CNN show. On the other, his brother is Andrew Cuomo, who in August resigned as governor of New York following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. A new report released Monday claimed that Chris had been more involved in his brother’s defense than he’d claimed. But you’d have no idea any of this happened if you watched that evening’s episode of Cuomo Prime Time.
.@ChrisCuomo says we should treat Omicron as an unknown until we actually know.
“We don’t really know what the threat of this one is,” he says of the latest variant. “…When you know, when you can show why there should be concern, come with it.” pic.twitter.com/1PfwjdrEJA
The CNN host devoted the opening stretch of the night’s show to the Omicron, the new COVID strain that was made public on the day after Thanksgiving, and about which still very little is known. The hour was business as usual, which is to say Cuomo never once mentioned the hot water in which he currently resides. The closest thing to an acknowledgement was when he passed the baton to colleague Don Lemon, who gave him a suspiciously warmer-than-usual greeting.
Cuomo didn’t mention anything about the new revelations about his involvement with his brother’s sexual misconduct scandal during the entire show and the LIES he told his audience in August. But during the handoff his buddy Don Lemon had encouraging words for him. pic.twitter.com/s4OGh1T44J
“I am grateful for your friendship and your love,” Lemon told Cuomo. “I think that you are fantastic. One of the kindest people I know on this planet.”
Records show that Chris Cuomo had been an eager part of his brother’s defense team. As sexual harassment accusations mounted, Chris was reportedly adamant that Andrew not resign, even willing to dig up dirt on some of his accusers. CNN announced shortly thereafter that they will conduct a “thorough review” of the report. In the meantime, their employee may simply have to pretend all’s hunky dory.
Law enforcement is actually involved in investigating the charges against Manson, though, and today they took steps in their investigation when the LA County Sheriff raided the performer’s residence. “What I can confirm is there was a search warrant that was served this morning,” a source from the LA County Sheriff told Rolling Stone. “It’s confirmed it was his address, his location. It’s confirmed that it was Marilyn Manson’s location. It was a search warrant for his belongings. I don’t know what was taken. It occurred this morning, and it was for him.”
Rolling Stone reached out to Manson but hasn’t received a comment about the raid. This story will be updated if that changes.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
