Month: May 2022

There were many eccentric characters who participated in the Jan. 6 riot. The influencer who bragged that she wouldn’t go to jail because she’s “white.” (She went to jail.) The guy arrested while in a touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar. The Coors Light guy. And, of course, there’s QAnon Shaman.

One of the strangest, though, is Thomas Webster, a former NYPD officer who was put on trial for assaulting a member of the D.C. police. Webster tried to claim self-defense, but as per ABC News, on Monday he found out a jury wasn’t buying that line.

Webster was found guilty of assaulting D.C. Metro Police Officer Noah Rathbun. A disturbing video shows Webster pushing through a crowd up to a line of bike racks that were being used as make-shift barriers. He wore a bullet-proof vest and wielded a Marine Corps flag. The former policeman then started yelling at the vastly outnumbered officers, calling them “commie mother*ckers” and swinging the metal flagpole at them. After breaking through the bike rack formation, he ran toward Rathbun and tackled him, pulling at his gas mask, which wound up choking the officer.

In his defense, Webster called Rathbun a “rogue cop,” claiming that Rathbun had started the fight. But the jury didn’t buy it, and Webster, the fourth Jan. 6 rioter to be put on trial, and the first to be tried on assault charges, as well as the first to claim self-defense.

(Via ABC News)

For DoorDash driver Sophia Furtado, it seemed like a routine work night. Someone made a pizza order on a Friday evening, near the end of her shift. Nothing unusual.

Except when she got to the house around 10 p.m., what she saw was anything but ordinary.

According to CNN, Furtado saw that the customer, Caryn Hebert Sullivan, had been lying on the ground outside her home, bleeding from her head.

Sullivan, who had a previous arm injury and a bad knee, had been waiting outside for the delivery. When she turned, her arm and knee gave out, causing her to fall and hit her head on the way down.

Sullivan told CNN, “I just remember laying on my driveway thinking, ‘this is pretty much over.’ I was laying there and saw a lot of white clouds.”

Luckily for Sullivan, fate would have it that her delivery driver also had crucial medical knowledge.

Furtado had spent time training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), but unfortunately failed her National Registry Test (NREMT) which for many candidates is the norm. In 2020, the average first-time pass rate for the notoriously difficult test was 67%. Limmer Education attributes this statistic in part due to the NREMT’s complex question structuring, along with classes simply not prepping for them.

“Test-takers need to be able to recognize small clues in the question stems, and then apply vast clinical knowledge to each scenario. Ideally, this process is taught and practiced in class. In reality, some classes don’t bother or don’t spend enough time on it,” the site says.

Nonetheless, Furtado was savvy enough to notice Sullivan’s congealed blood and accurately estimate that she had been lying outside somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes. It was enough to know the situation was dire.

“Caryn was unresponsive, and her eyes kept rolling to the back of her head,” Furtado explained, “I felt like I was going to lose her.”

Sullivan’s husband Robert awoke from his sleep to Furtado’s cries for help, and quickly retrieved supplies as she dialed 911 to correspond with the dispatcher. As she aided the police, Furtado remained calm and collected. Officer Jillian Jodoin of the Fairhaven Police Department noted to CNN that “Sophia became a part of our team to aid Caryn. I asked her if it was possible for her to keep stabilizing Caryn’s neck to keep her spine safe, her answer was, ‘I’m not going anywhere.'” It wasn’t long before the police arrived and transported Sullivan to the hospital.

Now deemed fully recovered, Sullivan has not only a second chance at life, but a newfound friendship with Furtado, dubbing her a “guardian angel.” The two families are acquainted, and plan to stay in touch. Sullivan even gave Furtado’s twins Easter gifts.

As for Furtado, her efforts have garnered well-deserved recognition. The Fairhaven Police Department posted to their Facebook page an awards ceremony held on Furtado’s behalf, and DoorDash granted her a $1,000 educational grant for her “heroic and tremendous” efforts.

Furtado hopes to put the money towards more EMT school. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that she passes her next exam, because she clearly already has the instincts and resolve necessary to save lives. Way to go, Furtado!

Conservatives are up in arms over a new Department of Homeland Security agency called the Disinformation Governance Board. After all, today’s GOP has a habit of spreading untruths. To the surprise of few, their attacks have inaccurately portrayed it, with many trying to claim that it’s some censorious board right out of George Orwell’s 1984 — a book that’s already gotten them in trouble before. But when Fox News’ Peter Doocy inevitably tried to raise those distortions to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, she was ready for him.

Doocy asked if President knew about the agency, which combats foreign disinformation, such as that coming from Russia, not domestic, as conservatives have claimed. Psaki then turned the tables on him, pointing out its origin stem from the previous administration.

“Well, Peter, I think I would note – and I’m not sure if this has been in your reporting yet – but this is a continuation of work that was done under the prior administration, under the Trump administration, to take steps to address disinformation, address the use of disinformation and helping smugglers prompt the movement of more migrants across to the border,” Psaki patiently explained.

She then demonstrated how the agency actually works. “I would note that the first example given in the announcement about this was DHS has worked to understand how ‘misinformation’ spread by human smugglers that prey on vulnerable populations attempting to migrate to the United States,” Psaki said. “So for anyone who’s out there who may be concerned about the increase in migrants to the border, this is the kind of apparatus that’s working to address disinformation. And again, continuing the work of the Department of Homeland Security and 2020. Something we’re currently applauding.”

But Doocy was undeterred, which is to say he essentially ignored everything Psaki had told him: “Just in terms of what the President wants out of this, does he want the people on this board to start censoring information that is not helpful to him?”

All Psaki could do was quote what the agency does on the DHS website, namely that operates in “ways that protect privacy, civil rights and civil liberties and the right to free speech.’”

Still not getting that the agency won’t police American citizens, Doocy asked about Nina Jankowicz, who’s in charge of it. “She has said that she thinks the Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation,” he said. “So should we look forward in the future to her censoring internet traffic about the Hunter Biden laptop?”

Still calm as ever, Psaki reminded him that she’s explained to him what the agency does twice already, pointing out that Jankowicz has “extensive experience” in “addressing disinformation,” including in Europe.

It’s the umpteenth time Psaki has had to correct Doocy, whether it’s debunking the central tenets of Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill or reminding him that he’s not a doctor.

(Via Raw Story)

The Minnesota Timberwolves were one of the best stories in the NBA this season, but a hard-fought first round series loss to the Memphis Grizzlies showed where they still need to make improvements.

One of those areas is at point guard, where it became painfully apparent during the playoff run that they just did not have anyone who could calm things down and get them into sets in crunch time during their three fourth quarter meltdowns that cost them the series. The Timberwolves had the worst fourth quarter offense in this year’s postseason with a 91.3 offensive rating, shooting 36.4 percent from the field and 25 percent from three, and a constant theme of their losses was the offense crumbling into hero-ball, often from Anthony Edwards and D’Angelo Russell.

The latter of those two had a particularly rough series, averaging just 12 points per game on 33.3 percent shooting from the field, and was relegated to the bench for the close of Game 6. Since arriving in Minnesota, Russell has shown flashes of brilliance, most notably his performance in the play-in win over the Clippers, but the inconsistency in maintaining that level has been a bit maddening, even if his overall averages when he’s been able to play for the Wolves have been good in the regular season.

As such, it appears that if the Wolves are going to shake things up this summer, Russell will be the odd man out from their core group alongside Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. Marc Stein reported in his newsletter on Monday that the expectation around the league is that Minnesota will look to move Russell and his expiring $31 million salary this offseason.

Numerous rival teams expect the Wolves to try to trade Russell this offseason irrespective of Russell’s close relationship with Minnesota star Karl-Anthony Towns.

It makes sense that Russell would be the one chosen to move, as Edwards and Towns are very clearly 1a and 1b in Minnesota, and Russell doesn’t quite provide the ideal complement to those two now that Edwards has established himself as a lead-scorer type. It’s not that Russell isn’t a capable passer, as his 7.1 assists per game this season (and 6.7 per game in the playoffs) show, but it’s more that the Wolves could use a calming presence on both ends of the floor.

Where Patrick Beverley provides a boost of energy, Minnesota is in fairly desperate need of a steady hand who can stop those long droughts before they even really start. As to who may be available for Russell, that is still to be determined, but one would think a veteran guard will likely be on the wishlist for Minnesota (and more) and Russell certainly still has plenty of value for teams in need of some scoring punch, so there should be some suitors out there.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been very public about her many kooky beliefs, but there’s one that when people bring it up really gets under her skin. In a 2018 post about Facebook, well before she ran for Congress, she wrote about what has been dubbed “Jewish space lasers.” The term has come to haunt her, and she does not like it. So when a reporter mentioned it at a small rally with her supporters, she quickly got very huffy.

In the old post, Greene spread a bizarre conspiracy theory blaming a deadly wildfire in California on space lasers that were controlled by a Jewish family. When that post was dug up years later, New York Magazine memorably dubbed it “Jewish space lasers,” a term that quickly went viral and is now a permanent part of her mystique.

On Monday, a reporter confronted her with the post itself. “This is your post under your name,” the reporter told her, “and you’re talking about the Rothschild family, which has been at the center of anti-Sematic conspiracies since the 19th century.”

Greene claimed ignorance. “I did not know that,” Greene told the reporter. “I have no idea. I’m telling you.” She then said that at the time “a regular American. Never been in politics. I couldn’t have told you some people back in politics or families names, don’t know their backgrounds.”

But the reporter persisted. “But now that you do know,” he said. “Now that you’ve been told… anti-Semitism is on the rise at an alarming rate.”

“I’m fully against anti-Semitism,” Greene responded, pointing to her support of Israel. “You’re mixing two things together. You’re accusing me of something I did not do, and then you’re trying to blame me for anti-Semitism.”

The post was far from the most alarming thing Greene made before she entered politics. She once shared a video of her harassing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and suggested that Nancy Pelosi should be executed for “treason,” both of which are at the very least major HR issues.

(Via Raw Story)

Every dog is different when it comes to playing fetch. Some have zero interest in playing, while others are obsessed with the game and won’t stop playing until their human friends force them to stop.

There are a lot of reasons why dogs love to play fetch. First, most dogs are genetically predisposed to chasing after objects that move, whether it’s a car or a squirrel. They also instinctually bring back prey to their dens.

“After a hunt, sometimes the wolf will carry the prey back to the den to be consumed safely with the pack, essentially ‘retrieving’ dinner for the family,” Katelyn Schutz, Certified Professional Dog Trainer of Wisconsin Pet Care, said according to BarkPost. “The game of fetch in our pet dogs is suggested to be a simple variation of this ‘prey-carrying’ behavior.”

Fetch also stimulates the reward centers in a dog’s brain, so once they get started playing they don’t want to stop. Bounder, Brittney Reynolds’ black Labrador, can’t get enough of catching and retrieving a tennis ball.

“He’s obsessed,” Reynolds told The Dodo. “He will play fetch until I make him stop.”

@brittneygoes

He brings it back to the edge of the fence. #blacklab #doglover #SeeHerGreatness

Bounders’ obsession with the game led him to ask Reynolds’ neighbor to play fetch with him when she wouldn’t. She discovered the game had been going on in secret one day when she went outside to see why Bounder was barking and discovered he was asking the neighbor to play with him.

“The neighbor was sitting on his back patio with the ball gun on the table, and Bounder was staring him down and barking at him wanting to play,” Reynolds said. “I tried to tell him to stop barking, but the neighbor got up and started shooting the ball gun for him. It was just so cute. I went and thanked him for playing with my boy and found out that they had been doing this for a while.”

The neighbors had a ball gun to play fetch with their dog, Layla.

Reynolds shared a wholesome video of Bounder and the neighbor playing together and it went viral receiving over 6.8 million views. “Just found out my neighbor and my dog have been playing fetch together over the fence,” she captioned the video.

Some commenters thought the game was great for the dog and the neighbor, too. “I just watched all your videos on this and I’m in love with this story! Your dogs have new grandparents and they have a reason to stay active,” Monica wrote.

“I hope that you know that allowing this is making that man’s day. You are a great neighbor and humanitarian. Thank you,” another user wrote.

@brittneygoes

Caught the neighbor playing with a Bounder again. He looks forward to this. #goodneighbors #doglovers #Totinos425

“I am a huge dog lover, and it always makes me happy to see others treating dogs so well,” Reynolds said about her neighbor.

“Our dogs are our family, and I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals.” Reynolds shared a follow-up video that showed the over-the-fence fetch game is still happening.

Judd Apatow has been teasing a George Carlin documentary for HBO, and it’s about to arrive surprisingly soon. The premium channel just dropped the first official trailer for George Carlin’s American Dream along with a May 20 release date for the first installment. However, fans of the legendary comedian won’t have to wait long for the second and final installment, which arrives the next day on May 21.

The documentary will feature candid interviews with Carlin’s daughter as well as the numerous comedians he’s inspired over the decades including Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Burr, Patton Oswalt, and many more. George Carlin’s American Dream also won’t shy away the comics’ drug addiction and the affects it had on his career and marriage. Like the man himself, the documentary will be no bullsh*t.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The two-part documentary tracks Carlin’s rise to fame and opens an intimate window into Carlin’s personal life, including his childhood in New York City, his long struggle with drugs that took its toll on his health, his brushes with the law, his loving relationship with Brenda, his wife of 36 years, and his second marriage to Sally Wade. Intimate interviews with Carlin and Brenda’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, offer unique insight into her family’s story and her parents enduring love and partnership.

George Carlin’s American Dream premieres May 20 on HBO with the second installment arriving on May 21.

It’s a bad time for Netflix! Last week, the streaming service laid off a ton of its editorial staff. Earlier this year, the site announced plans to crack down on password sharing, and even mentioned adding commercials. Also, Russian users have launched a lawsuit against the site. And now?! The site has just scrapped Meghan and Harry’s upcoming animated series.

Pearl, the animated series from Prince Harry and Meghan, was dropped from Netflix after being ordered last summer. Despite the high expectations, Deadline announced that Netflix has halted plans to continue with the series. The show was intended to follow a spunky 12-year-old girl with high ambitions and a love of history. Not anymore!

Despite the setback, the formerly royal couple still has a Netflix deal with more titles in the works, including the upcoming docuseries Heart Of Invictus.

This is just one of the many shows that have suffered from Netflix’s cutbacks, most of them being children’s content. Two children’s shows were also scrapped last week: Dino Daycare and Boons and Curses. It’s not just kid’s programming: Steve Carrell’s moderately funny comedy Space Force was also canceled after its second season premiered earlier this year.

Is this the end of Netflix? Did they waste all their money de-aging the children in Stranger Things? Or on an accent coach for Inventing Anna? What will they destroy next?

For the first time in six years, the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) was held with the president of the United States in attendance on April 30 in Washington, D.C. The WHCD has been a tradition in Washington for more than a century and for the past several decades it has taken the form of a comedic roast of both the government and the press. This year’s dinner was hosted by comedian and host of “The Daily Show” Trevor Noah, who’s known for his smart, witty commentary on social and political issues.

The “let’s invite a comedian to publicly and viciously make fun of us for a couple of hours” idea may be a bit odd, but these events have proven quite popular over the years, with many viral moments (including President Obama’s infamous GIF-worthy mic drop) coming from them.

This year’s dinner opened with Noah joking about it being a superspreader event, earning some uncomfortable laughter, then the individual roasts commenced. Noah didn’t hold back slamming people across the political and media spectrum—all in good fun, of course—including President Biden himself.

But it was Noah’s closing remarks that earned the most attention. In his signature style, Noah managed to bring a serious and thoughtful element to a night of ribbing and laughter when he admonished the press to recognize both their freedom and their responsibility.

“If you ever begin to doubt your responsibilities, if you ever begin to doubt how meaningful it is, look no further than what’s happening in Ukraine,” Noah said. “Look at what’s happening there. Journalists are risking and even losing their lives to show the world what is happening. You realize how amazing that is?

“In America, you have the right to seek the truth and speak the truth, even if it makes people in power uncomfortable. Even if it makes your viewers or readers uncomfortable. You understand how amazing that is?” he reiterated.

Noah pointed out that he had just stood there and made fun of the president of the United States and he was going to be fine. Then he contrasted that with the reality Russian journalists are living under Putin.

“Ask yourself this question,” he said to the members of the media. “If Russian journalists who are losing their livelihoods … and their freedom for daring to report on what their own government is doing—If they had the freedom to write any words, to show any stories, or to ask any questions—if they had, basically, what you have—would they be using it in the same way that you do?

“Ask yourself that question every day,” he said, “because you have one of the most important roles in the world.”

Watch:

Iu2019ve always respected @Trevornoah so much but this closing speech from the White House correspondentsu2019 dinner is particularly spectacular.pic.twitter.com/k8GmBOAoYB

— Mike Birbiglia (@Mike Birbiglia)
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People had high praise for Noah’s entire evening of hosting, but especially for his closing remarks. Russia’s war on Ukraine has put a spotlight on many things we tend to take for granted, including the freedom of the press.

Journalists do play a vital role in society and it’s one they must take seriously. To be fair, most journalists do feel the weight of their responsibility, but the corporatization of news media and a 24/7 news cycle has created a competitive landscape in which coverage is sometimes determined by what will drive traffic or viewers rather than on what’s truly newsworthy or important. The demonization of news outlets by some has also created a hostile media environment, and news organizations have to resist the urge to kowtow to the loudest voices or inadvertently amplify the wrong things. Journalists often have to fight for the truth on multiple fronts, sometimes inside their own newsrooms.

Thank you, Trevor Noah, for reminding reporters that the fight is worth it and for using this opportunity to remind the press of its primary purpose with such a simple yet profound question.

Trevor Noah with an amazingly powerful close reminding journalists in the United States, some of whom seem to take for granted what they have, of how lucky they are to have the freedom to speak truth to power.pic.twitter.com/oIcdPyO2bD

— Sarah Reese Jones (@Sarah Reese Jones)
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I found myself cheering @Trevornoah’s closing as though he could hear me. I felt foolish, but his words are that important. Sometimes speaking truth to power is telling people why it’s their responsibility to speak truth to power. Thank you, Mr. Noah!https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1520598522000719874u00a0u2026

— Benjamin Gorman ud83cudf4e (@Benjamin Gorman ud83cudf4e)
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If you didn’t actually listen to @Trevornoah’s closing speech — please do. He speaks not only to journalists, but to all of us.https://twitter.com/birbigs/status/1520626883616030720u00a0u2026

— ud83cuddfaud83cudde6 Ian Ricksecker ud83cuddfaud83cuddf8ud83cuddfaud83cudde6ud83cuddeaud83cuddfaud83cudf0d (@ud83cuddfaud83cudde6 Ian Ricksecker ud83cuddfaud83cuddf8ud83cuddfaud83cudde6ud83cuddeaud83cuddfaud83cudf0d)
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Come this Friday, Jack Harlow’s new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, will be out in the world. And ever since he appeared on Lil Nas X’s “Industry Baby,” Harlow has been continuously raising the bar in promoting the heck out of this wildly-anticipated album. While we haven’t gotten a full tracklist yet, the first single, “Nail Tech,” was a total heater, but Harlow said it was his “least favorite song on the album.” Single number two was “First Class,” and it netted Harlow his first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. And while Harlow is also getting his own KFC menu and an official “Jack Harlow Day” in his native Louisville, what he did today might just top everything.

Pandering to nostalgia is totally ok in our book and in a new teaser clip that Harlow tweeted out today, we see none other than ’90s mega-crush, Topanga Lawrence, from Boy Meets World, making an appearance. The creepy video sees Topanga (Danielle Fishel) driving through an LA street on a Halloween afternoon looking like she’s gonna completely lose her sh*t as her unsuspecting kids chill in the back of her black-on-black Range Rover.

Harlow tweeted out the clip saying just, “Friday,” and as the 48 second clip comes to a close, we see the words “Come Home The Kids Miss You May 6th” on the screen. Could this be a vignette to a new music video? Never mind that Harlow isn’t old enough t0 have watched Boy Meets World when it first aired (he was born in 1998 and the show ended its seven-year run in 2000), but the influence of Topanga is eternal. Your move Jack… we’ll be waiting.

Watch Jack Harlow’s teaser clip feature Danielle Fishel above.

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