Month: July 2022

On Wednesday, Republican senators blocked a veterans health bill they had already passed weeks before. Some of them, including Ted Cruz, even fist-bumped over it. Since then, they’ve been scrambling to defend their bizarre decision amidst backlash. Some have claimed, falsely, that the bill was altered. One, though, flat-out admitted they were using the lives of veterans for petty political gamesmanship.

In response to a tweet from President Joe Biden about the bill — called the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act (aka the PACT Act) and meant to help veterans exposed to toxic pit burns — Texas senator John Cornyn attempted to own him, but only owned himself.

“Mr President, passage would not have been delayed if Senator Schumer had kept his promises,” Cornyn tweeted. “Good news is, despite his mendacity, it will pass this next week.”

Cornyn’s tweet drew widespread revulsion, with many seeing through his words, accusing him of using the wellbeing of veterans to own the libs.

Meanwhile, Cruz is locked in battle with Jon Stewart, who has been relentlessly slamming him and other Republicans for toying with the lives of former soldiers. Another GOP senator, Pennsylvania’s outgoing Pat Toomey, didn’t even bother to sound sympathetic while speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“First of all, this is the oldest trick in Washington,” Toomey said. “People take a sympathetic group of Americans and it could be children with an illness, it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who have been exposed to toxic chemicals, craft a bill to address their problems and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own and dare Republicans to do anything about it because they know they’ll unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudocelebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there. That’s what’s happening here, Jake.”

The NBA lost a giant of the game on Sunday when 11-time champion and 5-time MVP Bill Russell died at the age of 88 with his wife by his side. The news was announced publicly on Russell’s Twitter account, which offered a remembrance of one of the greatest players and most important figures in basketball history, both on and off the court.

Russell was one of the most dominant players the NBA has ever seen, averaging 15.1 points and an unbelievable 22.5 rebounds per game in his career — blocks were not an official stat during Russell’s time in the NBA or he’d undoubtedly have posted an incredible figure there, too. He led the Celtics to 11 championships as both a player and, for his final two rings, a player-coach. Russell was also a key figure in the civil rights movement in America, working throughout his life to fight for the rights of Black Americans and speaking out and against discrimination in all forms.

The story of the NBA is impossible to tell without Russell, and he was one of the great ambassadors for the game — and sports in general — that we’ve ever seen. He was a constant presence at league events and the current stars of the game always showed incredible reverence for what he’d done in paving the way for them and helping create what the NBA has become today. Russell will be missed tremendously by the NBA family.

Sylvester Stallone has never been shy about sequels. He turned Rocky into a franchise before they were commonplace. He’s repeatedly dusted off Rambo, creating a confusingly titled series long before the likes of Halloween and Scream. But he can be picky. He was reluctant to do Creed, and he recently got pissed about the fact that he doesn’t own the Rocky rights, and that they’ll be going to the children of Irwin Winkler, the series’ producer. So when a new spin-off movie was announced for Drago, the Russian pugilist played by Dolph Lundgren, he really went off.

“Another Heartbreaker,” Stallone wrote on Instagram. “Just found this out…ONCE AGAIN , this PATHETIC 94 year old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC USELESS VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles And David , are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me.” He then apologized to the “FANS,” saying he “never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites.”

Stallone made sure his ire wasn’t directed to the film’s main star. “By the way, I have nothing but respect for Dolph but I wish HE had told me what was going on behind my back,” he wrote, adding, “Keep your REAL friends close.”

Back in mid-July, Stallone went off on Winkler and his kids, lamenting that they own the rights to the character that made his name, saying that he “wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children.”

In the meantime, at least Stallone has a big show en route: He’s teamed up with Yellowstone’s Taylor Sheridan for a show in which he plays a mafia capo who finds himself in Oklahoma in Tulsa King.

(Via Deadline)

Donald Trump has a lot going on right now, but he’s somehow found the time to draw attention to one part of his empire in particular: his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The former president has drawn fire from families of 9/11 victims for hosting a (sparsely attended) Saudi golf tournament at his NYC-adjacent course. But there’s more: When he buried his late ex-wife Ivana near the course’s first hole, he may have done so for tax break purposes.

As caught by The Daily Mail, Dartmouth sociology professor Brooke Harrington suspected something was up when Trump buried his first wife on one of his golf courses. So she did some snooping, and she discovered that in Jersey, there is no minimum number of bodies required for a plot of land to be designated a cemetery…and therefore be exempt from all taxes, rates, and assessments.

What’s more, tax documents reveal that the Trump Family Trust recently sought to designate a property only 20 miles from the golf club, in Hackettstown, to become a non-profit cemetery company.

So, did self-professed rich guy really use his late ex-wife’s death to save some money? He of course hasn’t addressed the matter. But as per Insider, he’s tried to turn his golf club into a makeshift cemetery before:

Trump has planned for at least a decade to build variations of a cemetery on the course. NPR reported in 2012 that his intention was to build a mausoleum to one day be buried in himself. He later amended his proposal to create a cemetery on the property to suggest building more than 1,000 possible graves.

He later changed designs again, planning to create a “10 plot private family cemetery” in the same location, The Washington Post reported in 2017. Trump further amended the proposal to include a 284-plot cemetery, which would have gravesites available for sale.

If this was on an episode of Veep, it would be criticized as too far-fetched. Then again, so would the fact that he tried to fundraise after her death.

(Via The Daily Mail and Insider)

Chance The Rapper and Kanye West began heavily collaborating with each other back in 2016 as Chance had a huge presence on Kanye’s seventh album The Life Of Pablo. Chance had writing credits on multiple songs including, “Ultralight Beam,” “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1,” “Famous,” and more. From then on, Chance and Kanye’s relationship would cool off a bit, mainly due to political disagreements. Despite this, things seemed to be okay between the two rappers, until at the top of 2021 when a video of Kanye yelling at Chance surfaced on social media.

The video, which was reportedly from a documentary for Kanye’s Donda album, captures Kanye growing increasingly agitated with Chance during a conversation. One thing led to another and Kanye tells Chance to sit his “ass down and listen to the album or leave.” Eighteen months after that video surfaced, Chance finally addressed it during an interview on The Morning Hustle. He described it as a clip from “a larger moment, like no one’s ever gonna get the full story of what’s going on.”

Chance continued, “I saw people put fake captions under the video to make it look like he was talking about my music or something like that. But in all honesty, this is real life. I have real friends and they go through real problems.” He went on to speak about his true intentions for visiting Kanye at the time and how he felt about people’s reactions to the clip.

“I did come out there to check on my friend,” he said. “Me and a lot of other people still have love for Ye. But he’s human, he’s not perfect. He was obviously going through it at that time … It made me evaluate my friendship with him, for sure. I had never been so close to him going through an episode.” He added, “At the end of the day, I definitely love the dude. That’s my guy. It sucks that sometimes people can exploit a moment that is a genuine moment.”

You can revisit the clip in question and watch Chance’s interview on The Morning Hustle above.

It’s been four months since arguably the most shocking moment in Oscars history, when Will Smith slapped presenter Chris Rock on live television…and then won an Academy Award about 20 minutes later. Since then Rock has largely stayed quiet about the incident. At stand-up shows, he’s even admitted he was still working on how to address it. Now he’s baby-stepping into adding it to his act.

As per Deadline, Rock made some little jokes about the incident at a show on Friday, slipping a reference to it in the middle of a bit about victimization.

“Everybody is trying to be a f*cking victim,” Rock told the crowd. “If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims. Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith … I went to work the next day, I got kids.” (The “Suge” is a reference to Suge Knight, the infamous founder of the game-changing rap label Death Row Records, currently serving a 28-year sentence for a fatal hit-and-run.)

Rock later tipped his hat to the slap again, cracking, “Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”

Rock’s set happened to come the same day Smith dropped a lengthy apology video. “I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that, he’s not ready to talk. When he is, he will reach out,” Smith said. “I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I am here whenever you are ready to talk.”

(Via Deadline)

After a stunning upset at UFC 269 that saw Julianna Peña (12-5) claim the bantamweight crown, Amanda Nunes (22-5) returned to the Octagon on Saturday night at UFC 277 from American Airlines Center in Dallas with revenge on her mind. Nunes did just that, dominating Peña from bell to bell to reclaim her belt in the main event.

Nunes opened the fight switching stances and tossing a handful of head kicks. Peña waited nearly a minute into the fight to look for an opening, moving inside and throwing a quick combination before jumping out of Nunes’ reach. Peña was wary to trade hands with the former champion, trying to stick and move, but often catching a hook on the way out. Nunes put Peña down to a knee twice in the first round, with the first coming from a counter-hook and the second coming from a stiff jab out of southpaw. Peña fought off a takedown attempt at the end of the round, standing Nunes up and catching her with a combination of her own. Nunes responded with a nice one-two that wobbled Peña before the round ended.

Early in the second, Nunes dropped Peña with a huge counter right hook, but couldn’t finish her on the ground. Back on her feet, Nunes put Peña back on the mat with another big right hand, again opting to let her get back to her feet. Peña refused to back down though, continuing to charge forward with a handful of punches as she pushed Nunes back. Nunes yet again dropped her with a counter shot for the third time in the round, refusing to get on the mat and allowing her to get back to her feet.

Midway through the third, Nunes earned her first takedown of the night, moving into full guard. Nunes proceeded to drop huge elbows from the top and Peña nearly transitioned her way into an arm bar attempt. Nunes was technically sound though and moved into side guard to end another dominant round.

To open the championship round, Nunes earned another takedown and worked from full mount early in the fourth. Peña yet again went for an arm, but Nunes put a knee on her stomach and easily transitioned out. Peña had another shot at the arm, but Nunes wrapped her legs around the champ, and flattened herself to escape. Back on their feet, Nunes landed another takedown. Peña looked for a triangle, but couldn’t get it locked in. Back on their feet again, Nunes tripped the champ and worked from the top.

In the fifth and final round, Nunes outmuscled Peña for a takedown just seconds into the round. Peña escaped back to her feet, but it was Nunes going right back to the ground, content to user her strength to keep the champ grounded through the end of the fight.

After seven years as the world’s most dominant bantamweight in the world, Nunes was pressed and overwhelmed by Peña in their first showdown, before being submitted in the second round. Before that, the former two-division champ had knocked off Valentina Shevchenko, Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, and Germaine de Randamie.

Peña’s victory over Nunes last year came as a stunner, with an up-and-down tenure that saw her trade wins and losses over the last six years, including a submission loss in 2020 to de Randamie and then two submission wins over Sara McMann and Nunes.

The saga that’s been Brandon Moreno (20-6-2) and Deiveson Figueiredo playing hot potato with the UFC flyweight belt took a slight detour on Saturday night at UFC 277, when Kai Kara-France (24-10) entered the frame to fight for the interim crown. Moreno continued his pursuit of winning back the belt with a third-round TKO of Kara-France in the co-main event from American Airlines Center in Dallas.

https://twitter.com/ftbeard7/status/1553588968557404160?s=21&t=zpFJrowBsOPk0aq-V3WVeg

Moreno looked like a fighter who has been here before, with the championship pedigree to know exactly how to pace himself through a potential five-round fight. Kara-France was methodical in his own right, looking for opportunities to toss his heavy right hand and finding gaps in Moreno’s showmanship to attack his chin.

After a relatively even first round, Moreno was precise, jabbing Kara-France when he jumped inside and taking advantage of the rare misstep to clinch Kara-France against the cage midway through the second. Kara-France began to chip away with leg kicks, mixing it up from his barrage on Moreno’s face as his lead leg began to show some color.

In the third, Kara-France earned his first takedown of the night, but Moreno escaped back to his feet only to be met with another slew of heavy-handed shots. Moreno caught Kara-France with a heavy kick to the midsection before finishing him on the ground, earning a ref stoppage.

Moreno entered Saturday night’s bout having lost a decision bout and the belt to the current champion in his last outing. Before that, Moreno submitted Figueiredo to claim the belt. Moreno’s last fight against Kara-France came in 2018, when the former champion earned a decision victory.

Kara-France won his last three bouts to earn a title shot, with a decision over Askar Askarov and a gnarly first-round knockout of Cody Garbrandt.

The annual Lollapalooza festival is underway, and there is much excitement surrounding many of the acts. The Chicago spectacle is a major celebration of music, and this year is highlighted by BTS’s J-Hope. While BTS’s popularity goes without saying, evidently, J-Hope has a loyal following of his own as a Lollapalooza organizer revealed that he is the biggest draw the festival has ever had as one of the headliners.

In a tweet from earlier today, a fan said they spoke with a Lollapalooza organizer who said that in the festival’s 31 years of operation, no one act has sold as many tickets as J-Hope. He also said that the Sunday lineup is set to have the lowest attendance in their history as well.

Again, this comes as no shock given BTS’s fandom and J-Hope’s solo career foray. The artist recently released his debut solo album Jack In The Box, lead by the single “More” and follow-up “Arson.” BTS’s initial announcement that its members would explore solo careers caused much hysteria, but the group clarified that they are not breaking up. J-Hope was the first of the group to release a solo album, and it seems like the rest will follow.

This headlining set at Lollapalooza is sure to be a major celebration of his hard work, and who knows? Maybe the other members will be present.

Check out the tweet sharing the Lollapalooza organizer’s words above.

Donald Trump isn’t all that into meat. After all, he prefers his steaks cooked to a flavorless crisp, and he’s so into McDonald’s he even offers it to athletes and demands it while in the hospital following a near-death experience. And yet even as it appears he’s being ghosted by Fox News and slammed by the families of 9/11 victims, at least there’s a Trump superfan in Texas who created a burger joint in his honor.

It’s called Trump Burgers, of course, and it’s located in Bellville, an hour or so drive northwest of Houston. As per Houston Chronicle, its exterior is festooned with pro-Trump banners, American flags, and an illustration of the disgraced former president. On the inside is another drawing of Trump, located right next to a sign directing patrons to the restrooms.

The owner is Roland Beainy, a second-generation Lebanese-American born in Boston who spent much of his youth in Lebanon, opened the restaurant in 2020, one year after returning to the U.S. When it first opened, there was controversy, including threatening phonecalls, but those have died down, allowing patrons to enjoy the Trump Tower, listed at some point at $13.99 and consisting of a 12 oz. Angus patty and “fully loaded.” It is one of only two items on the menu bearing the ex-president’s name.

Though Trump Burger has no connection with the Trump Organization, which is currently under investigation, Beainy says a portion of his restaurant’s profits go towards his fundraising campaign. Perhaps he missed the news that self-professed rich guy Trump sometimes uses donations from his supporters on himself.

(Via Houston Chronicle)