Month: January 2022

Ted Cruz simply cannot stop attracting negative attention to himself. It’s easy to wonder, as well, about how Ted might be wanting to distract everyone from his impending one-year anniversary of “Cancun,” but nope, this is probably only a case of Ted being Ted. He’s never, ever deflated, not even after being caught “liking” a porn tweet or being unflatteringly compared to a Game of Thrones character for groveling to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson after (accurately) describing January 6 as a “terrorist attack.”

Ted’s month keeps growing ever more squirrelly, and his current appeal to the Supreme Court is a prime example. The above Getty photo (of Ted smugly shaking the hand of the Trump-nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh in 2018) goes with the theme well. That theme’s related to what recently landed Lauren Boebert in hot water: using campaign funds to pay personal expenses. Ted’s now brought a sketchy case (Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate) to the Supreme Court that asks them to essentially legalize campaign bribes. At the very least, the case means to loosen restrictions, and it would do so — with a confusing loophole — by removing limits on how much a candidate can “loan” their campaign and how these loans could be repaid by donations that go straight to the candidate.

In a roundabout way, this means that candidates can directly take donations (which could very well be bribes) and bypass their campaign-related red tape in the process. They would also earn interest on the money during these loans, in addition to taking what could be bribes without checks and balances. It’s crafty as hell, as Vox points out:

And even if lawmakers do not enrich themselves by making high-interest loans to their campaign, the fact remains that every dollar a campaign donor gives to help a campaign pay back a loan from the candidate goes straight into that candidate’s pocket. As the Justice Department argues in its brief defending against Cruz’s lawsuit, “a contribution that adds to a candidate’s personal assets (and that can accordingly be used for personal purposes) poses a far greater threat of corruption than a payment that merely adds to a campaign’s treasury (and that can accordingly be used only for campaign purposes).”

While a decision in Cruz’s favor could effectively make it legal for wealthy donors to bribe lawmakers, Cruz has a very good chance of prevailing in a Supreme Court where Republicans control six of the Court’s nine seats.

Unshockingly (and as pointed out above), the Justice Department is looking to shut down Cruz’s case, but the court’s leaning in Cruz’s favor, particularly because Brett Kavanaugh has (in the past) argued that limits on campaign contributions are somehow unconstitutional. Whatever the outcome of this case turns out to be, no one on Twitter seems to be surprised at all that Ted Cruz wouldn’t mind effectively legalizing bribery through campaign donations.

(Via Vox & SCOTUS Blog)

Coldplay first formed after Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland met at college back in 1996. The seeds of Martin’s desire to even pursue music, though, run deeper than that: During his appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show yesterday, he said the movie Back To The Future, specifically the iconic scene where Michael J. Fox performs at the school dance, made him want to be in a band.

Martin told Clarkson, “We’ve been so lucky with people we get to do covers with, when there’s a special moment, or a city we’re in where a cover feels right, or a person who’s there that we want to ask to come on stage. My No. 1 probably is [when] Micheal J. Fox came and played two of the songs from Back To The Future with us in MetLife Stadium, and that was really wonderful.”

He then added, “That’s what made me want to be in a band, that scene. […] I grew up in real farm land of England before the internet, so any music on TV… the first thing I ever recorded was, there was a show called The A-Team, and I had a cassette recorder and held it against the TV to record the theme tune.”

The performance Martin is talking about took place at the East Rutherford, New Jersey venue on July 17, 2016, when Fox joined the band to perform a couple of Back To The Future staples: “Earth Angel” by The Penguins and “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry. Coldplay shared pro-shot footage of the “Johnny B. Goode” performance not long after it took place, and the video shows Martin often flashing a wide smile that indicates he can’t believe what he’s doing in that moment. After the song ends, he proclaims, “Oh, that’s our dream come true. Thank you, Michael.”

Watch a clip of Martin’s interview above and find Coldplay and Fox’s joint performances below.

Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Between being stripped of his license to practice law in either New York or Washington, D.C. and banned from yukking it up on Fox News, one has to imagine that Rudy Giuliani’s cell phone (the one the FBI didn’t snatch up when they raided his apartment back in April) has been going through a bit of a dry spell. So maybe he’ll be happy to hear that someone wants to talk to him… even if it is the January 6th Select Committee.

As Forbes reports, Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson told a pair of CNN reporters that Giuliani is at the top of their list of key Donald Trump associates who undoubtedly have valuable information to share with the committee about Trump’s comings and goings-on and surrounding the Capitol insurrection. “He’s an integral part of whatever happens,” Thompson said of the disgraced former New York City Mayor.

Though Thompson did not specify a timeline for when they might want to speak with Rudy, he was certain that they “absolutely” would call on the man formerly known as America’s Mayor at some point. He also didn’t say whether they would be subpoenaing Giuliani or if they expected him to voluntarily cooperate with their investigation, only noting that the committee is currently “working through the process.”

In the final days of Trump’s presidency, Rudy was regularly at his side and one of his most vociferous supporters (even if he sometimes seemed less than coherent). As the former president’s personal lawyer, he was also part of a very tiny inner circle that reportedly set up a kind of war room at the Willard Hotel to find a way to keep Trump in power. While Steve Bannon, who was also there, has already proudly stated that he did indeed plot to make the fatal events of January 6th happen, Giuliani is famous for going off-script, so it’s hard to know what he’ll say. Or whether they’ll be an accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

(Via Forbes)

WARNING: Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett Episode 3 below.

About halfway through the latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett, longtime Star Wars fans were not only created with the return of a classic creature, the Rancor, but its handler was none other than cinematic badass and frequent Robert Rodriguez collaborator Danny Trejo. Now, to be clear, this is obviously not the same Rancor from Return of the Jedi, which was killed by Luke Skywalker in the film’s opening escape from Jabba the Hutt’s palace. No, this new Rancor is a much younger creature gifted to Boba Fett by Jabba’s twin cousins who are getting the heck out of Dodge. (Or so they claim.)

As for Trejo, his character appears to be a new addition to Star Wars lore as he’s simply credited as “Rancor Trainer.” However, he seems to have a much meatier part than the previous Rancor Keeper from Return of the Jedi, who didn’t really say much of anything except for breaking down in tears when Luke crushed his baby with a mechanical door. While introducing Boba Fett to the new Rancor, Trejo’s characters explained the creature’s surprising emotional depth, and more importantly, set the stage for Boba to ride the thing, which yes, sign us up for that.

In the meantime, Trejo is already trending on social media where Star Wars fans are absolutely loving his addition to The Book of Boba Fett, and the fact that he remains a welcomed presence in Rodriguez’s work. You can see some of the fan reactions below:

Ted Cruz has lost track of what he believes. Last week, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Cruz—who has spent the last 12 months regularly downplaying the events of January 6th—suddenly decided to condemn that day’s riots as a “violent terrorist attack.” But when Tucker Carlson criticized the Texas senator for his bold assertion, Cruz quickly folded then popped up on Fox News to raise the white flag and admit that what he had said was “frankly dumb” while Carlson berated him.

That 24-hour about-face could have been the end of it, had Cruz simply chosen to slink off back to his cave while the rest of the world labeled him a “sniveling coward” and compared him to Reek from Game of Thrones. Instead, the unofficial ambassador of Señor Frog’s Cancun has decided to double-down on his previous treatment of January 6th as anything but a “violent terrorist attack” by declaring it a false flag operation.

As Raw Story reports, Cruz is doing everything he can to become a VIP member of Club MAGA once again, most recently by spending some time chatting with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. When the topic turned to the Capitol coup, Cruz broke out a popular conspiracy theory that the events of that day were a false flag operation, claiming that insurrectionist Ray Epps was an FBI informant. As Cruz told Hannity:

“I asked FBI [official Jill Sanborn], ‘Is Mr. Epps an agent of the FBI? Is he an informant of the FBI?’ And she stonewalled, refused to answer. We know the FBI put him out on the list of people they wanted information about, and then magically he disappeared. There needs to be transparency, and the Biden administration needs to fess up—is this a politicized law enforcement operation that is targeting the enemies of the president? And did they actively encourage and solicit illegal conduct?”

It was the second time that Cruz pushed this idea on Tuesday, having made the same general assertions earlier in the day during a legislative hearing, writes Raw Story. The January 6th House select committee issued an unequivocal response to Cruz’s suggestions on Tuesday, stating:

“The Committee has interviewed Epps. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan 5th or 6th or at any other time and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”

People on Twitter had some thoughts about Reek Cruz, with many of them attempting to remind him who the president was on January 6, 2021 (hint: not Joe Biden).

(Via Raw Story)

After putting out many of the best movies of 2021, including The Green Knight, Zola, and Red Rocket, A24 has another big year ahead. 2022 will see the release of Disappointment Blvd., Ari Aster’s mysterious follow-up to Hereditary and Midsommar starring Joaquin Phoenix; the awesome looking Everything Everywhere All at Once; After Yang, from Columbus director Kogonada; and X, which I can only describe as, what if The Texas Chainsaw Massacre… but with porn stars.

The 1970s-set horror film follows “a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives,” according to A24. There’s no Leatherface (although Leatherface should appear in non-Massacre movies; he’s been typecast for too long), but X does have creepy weirdos in a middle-of-nowhere Texas house — and plenty of violence. And sex, obviously.

X was written and directed by Ti West, who also made The House of the Devil, In a Valley of Violence, and The Innkeepers, and stars Mia Goth (Suspiria), Jenna Ortega (Jane the Virgin), Martin Henderson (The Ring), Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect), and Scott Mescudi (a.k.a. rapper Kid Cudi). It comes out in theaters on March 18.

Sarah Palin, who even the most trolled person on Twitter has an issue with, is suddenly everywhere. If she’s not stating that she’d only get vaccinated “over my dead body,” she’s threatening to run for office again or accusing Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of wanting to “pound” sex into people’s heads. The former-Alaska governor also filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times over a 2017 editorial that, she claims, falsely linked her to the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords.

The case will go to trial, and when it does, Palin would really prefer if the jury didn’t see her perform “Baby Got Back” while dressed as a bear on Fox’s The Masked Singer.

Sarah Palin wants jurors to be barred from seeing footage of her appearance on The Masked Singer in her defamation case against the New York Times that may go to trial in the coming weeks. In a court filing in the Manhattan federal suit Monday, the former GOP vice presidential candidate listed a number of proposed exhibits she wants hidden from the jury because they could cause “unfair prejudice and confusion,” among other issues.

The exhibits she wants dismissed (due to “unfair prejudice and confusion; improper character evidence; and hearsay”) include “Masked Singer Video – Dancing and Rapping” and “Masked Singer Video – Reveal,” as well as “Palin Instagram Account” and “Sarahpalin.com – Online Store.” You can’t buy a copy of her Masked Singer episode on the website, but you can purchase a used DVD of Sarah Palin’s Alaska for $2.12.

Boy, it sure would be a shame if you were to watch Palin on The Masked Singer, the footage of which I’m definitely not posting below.

If anything, Sir Mix-a-Lot should be suing her.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter and the New York Post)

Amy Schneider, who was already the winningest woman on Jeopardy! before passing the $1,000,000 mark on Friday, keeps on cranking. On Tuesday might, the Ohio native scored her 30th win, and there’s no sign that she’ll be knocked down anytime soon. To that end, she sat down with NPR to discuss her winning streak, and there’s plenty of useful tidbits in here, including how those GOP trolls aren’t actually as bad (at least online) as Amy expected them to be.

Amy revealed how “[i]t really is a much smaller percentage of negative feedback that I’ve been getting,” as well as her believe that “as anyone should on the internet, I stay out of the comment sections.” That’s the truth, and Amy opened up about the song (and it’s the same one I once used before running races with much less success) that she uses to get herself ready to roll. In addition to years of prep, the song is working:

“To sort of pump myself up before each game … standing at the podium, I kind of run through the lyrics of Eminem’s Lose Yourself,” she said. “It’s so fitting to the moment because I really do have to lose myself in the moment, like he says.”

From there, Amy also took to Twitter to discuss how she prefers to unwind, post-game: bath bombs. It looks like she’s on the mend from having a cold, too, and Amy also opened up about the strict, early-morning Covid-19 testing regimen for contestants during these strange times.

(Via NPR)

Things between Britney Spears and her sister Jamie Lynn don’t seem to be great right now, as Britney recently unfollowed her on Instagram. Now, Jamie Lynn herself has addressed her and Britney’s relationship while promoting her new book Things I Should Have Said in a new Good Morning America interview today. Furthermore, some think one of Britney’s latest Instagram posts is a response to the GMA appearance.

In a clip teasing the interview that was shared yesterday, Jamie Lynn tearfully acknowledges her and Britney’s strained relationship and says, “I love my sister.” After that teaser was revealed, some interpreted Britney’s next post as being a response hinting that she will write a memoir of her own, as she shared a photo of a typewriter and captioned it, “Shall I start from THE BEGINNING???”

During the interview, Jamie Lynn said she was “happy” when she learned that her sister’s conservatorship had come to an end and noted that she “took no steps to be a part of” the conservatorship. She also said she “went out of my way to make sure she had the contacts she needed to possibly go ahead and end this conservatorship,” later adding, “I did take the steps to help, but how many times can I take the steps without, you know… she has to walk through the door.”

In another clip from a more emotionally charged part of the interview, Jamie Lynn tearfully says of her and Britney’s relationship, “That love is still there, 100 percent. I love… I love my sister. I’ve only ever loved and supported her and done what’s right by her, and she knows that, so I don’t know why we’re in this position right now.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Britney has seemingly responded to Jamie Lynn and her book: Shortly after Jamie Lynn revealed her book’s title in October 2021, Britney posted on Instagram, “Psssssss also great news … I’m thinking of releasing a book next year [winking emoji] but I’m having issues coming up with a title so maybe my fans could help !!!! Option #1 … ‘Sh*t, I really don’t know’ Option #2 … ‘I really care what people think’ [laughing and shrugging emojis] !!!!” What do you guys think ????”

You’ve got to hand it to Miley Cyrus — nobody does a come back quite like her. When she pivoted to rock in 2020 with Plastic Hearts, it was about as epic a return as any artist has made, and these days, fans are clamoring for more. After her impressive NYE performance and hosting gig with Pete Davidson — where she soldiered through a major wardrobe malfunction — Miley has been working on new music. Likely the first item on her list is recording a studio version of “You,” a song she performed live on New Year’s Eve that her listeners have been clamoring for a recorded version of ever since.

And even though she might be in her rock phase now, that doesn’t mean Miley has abandoned her interest in hip-hop. It seemed she did, a few years ago, when she decided to throw the entire genre under the bus, but now she’s definitely back in the mix. She posted a series of photos on Instagram today with her Bangerz collaborator, Mike Will Made It, and his proteges, Rae Sremmurd. Also pictured? Tobias Jesso Jr. and Bibi Bourelly. This new record is definitely going to be interesting! Keep your ears out for new music coming soon.