Month: August 2022

Ted Cruz can’t cut a break. No matter what the Texas senator does, he always seems to step in it, not unlike Sideshow Bob and that sea of rakes. Whether he’s blocking a bill meant to save the lives of veterans, trying to feign toughness or picking fights with puppets, he’s always raked over the coals on social media. On the latest episode of the podcast he does with Michael Knowles, the young Republican and the only person on the planet who thinks he’s genuinely funny, Cruz tried to make fun of people stoked that Joe Biden made their lives better. And wouldn’t you know he only succeeded in pissing a ton of folks off.

Like a lot of conservatives who hate when the government helps people, Cruz is hopping mad that President Joe Biden announced he’s cancelling a small amount of student debt, which has all but financially crippled a generation. He expressed his disdain by crapping on the young and/or working class.

“If you are that slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things, now has loans and can’t get a job, Joe Biden just gave you 20 grand,” Cruz, who went to Princeton and Harvard, told Knowles, who went to Yale. “And you know, if you can get off the bong for a minute and head down to the voting station… or just send in your mail-in ballot that the Democrats have helpfully sent you, it could drive up turnout, particularly among young people.”

Cruz’s tone was one of withering contempt for the people who prepare his coffee, and who probably weren’t going to vote for him before he slammed them anyway. But a lot of people noticed the classist overtones from a member of the party allegedly for the working class.

Others felt it wasn’t a great way for the GOP to court the youth vote.

Some were concerned that Cruz was about to get a lot of spit in his coffee going forward.

And of course, there were a fair amount of references to his little Cancún trip from last year, when he abandoned his job to go on vacation then blamed it on young people (i.e., his kids).

Maybe, some postulated, the real slacker is the senator who doesn’t do much except raise various stinks, get into social media fights with stars of his favorite movies, and record podcasts.

Maybe Cruz was just jealous that Democrats keep doing popular things that will make their lives better and perhaps ensure that they retain power.

Danilo Gallinari is among the many NBA veterans currently playing in the FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers, as he is among the leaders for Italy, but on Saturday in a group stage game against Georgia, the newest member of the Boston Celtics left with a potentially serious injury.

On a fourth quarter fast break, Gallinari got the ball in the middle of the floor and planted his left leg to make a move to his right, immediately pulling up and holding his left knee after making the move. He would be attended to on the court and helped off of the floor, as fans of the Italian national team and the Celtics hold their breath waiting for an official update.

We won’t know the severity of the injury until an official update, but the non-contact nature of the way he got hurt raises the level of concern that it could cost him a significant chunk (if not all) of next season. Gallinari is getting ready to enter his 15th season in the NBA and first with the Celtics after he was traded from Atlanta to San Antonio in the Dejounte Murray deal before being waived and signing with the defending East champs.

The veteran forward was hopeful to provide some additional scoring pop off of the bench for the Celtics, but a knee injury now brings doubt as to when he might make his Boston debut.

Win Butler, the lead singer of Arcade Fire, has had multiple women come forward and allege that he sexually engaged with them in an appropriate manner, as reported by Pitchfork. The alleged misconduct spans from 2015 to 2020 with three women and one gender-fluid individual, all of which are reportedly loyal Arcade Fire fans and spanned from ages 18 to 23. When contacted for a comment on the allegations, the 42-year-old made multiple claims that portray the interactions as both consensual and not initiated by him.

In multiple statements to Pitchfork via crisis public relations expert Risa Heller, Butler states “While these relationships were all consensual, I am very sorry to anyone who I have hurt with my behavior,” and continues with “As I look to the future, I am continuing to learn from my mistakes and working hard to become a better person, someone my son can be proud of. […] I’m sorry I wasn’t more aware and tuned in to the effect I have on people – I f*cked up, and while not an excuse, I will continue to look forward and heal what can be healed, and learn from past experiences.”

Butler’s wife and bandmember, Régine Chassagne, also contributed statements on his behalf. “Win is my soulmate, my songwriting partner, my husband, the father of my beautiful boy. He has been my partner in life and in music for 20 years. And for all of the love in our lives, I have also watched him suffer through immense pain. I have stood by him because I know he is a good man who cares about this world, our band, his fans, friends, and our family.”

Chassagne concluded her statement, saying “I’ve known Win since before we were ‘famous,’ when we were just ordinary college students. I know what is in his heart, and I know he has never, and would never, touch a woman without her consent and I am certain he never did. He has lost his way and he has found his way back. I love him and love the life we have created together.”

There is currently no confirmation as to whether the accusers will press charges.

Halsey was one of the headliners at the Leeds leg of Reading & Leeds Festival on Friday night, but the day did not start the way they expected. Prior to their set, Halsey was in the medical tent being treated for what they called, “Terrible food poisoning” and somehow recovered in time to make it on stage to perform for tens of thousands of spectators at the British mega music festival.

“I have no idea how I’m still alive after my Leeds set,” Halsey posted on their Instagram Story. “I have terrible food poisoning STILL! It started yesterday at 2pm and I somehow made it on stage (after the medical team at the festival were soooo helpful!).”

“I have played shows under some messed up conditions but last night might be the worst in recent memory. Felt like I was on Jupiter the whole time,” they continued. “Thank you for being so cool and letting me basically do whatever just to survive the set! You guys would have been an unreal crowd under ANY circumstances let alone these. Time to rest now 4 Reading tomorrow.”

It’s pretty wild to consider than not only did Halsey make it out on stage at Leeds, but also doesn’t plan on skipping a beat and is motoring on to their Saturday night set at Reading. In a subsequent post, Halsey confirmed that the show will in fact go on: “Thanks for being so awesome Leeds. gonna rest all day and show up in tip top shape for Reading tomorrow.”

For many artists, new music means making some type of change to their appearance to usher in a new era. In the latest act of doing so, Sam Smith debuted a new blond hair color and teased their upcoming single with Kim Petras.

In a Saturday (August 27) Instagram post, the “Stay With Me” artist sits in front of a cinderblock wall, fully showing off their tattoos and the new do. There was a full-on buildup to this photo, as their post from two hours before is captioned “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” on a video where they are washing their new hair.

As for the single with Kim Petras, it appears it is titled “Unholy” as a Thursday (August 24) Instagram post with the German singer is captioned “Unholy Coming Soon.” They even threw their hats into the TikTok dance ring, joining up for a fun Instagram video on the same day.

For Sam Smith, “Unholy” follows “Love Me More” from back in May. Otherwise, they haven’t released any music since “You Will Be Found” with Summer Walker from The “Dear Evan Hansen” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Their last album came in 2020 with Love Goes anchored by “My Oasis” featuring Burna Boy.

Check out Sam Smith’s new hairdo and some of their other promotional posts above.

The Orlando Magic are so deep into a youth movement that one of the team’s veterans in soon-to-be 28-year-old Gary Harris. Outside of Terrence Ross, no player on the roster has been in the league longer than Harris, who is about to enter his eighth year in the NBA and his second full year with the Magic, who acquired him at the trade deadline in 2021 from the Denver Nuggets.

Unfortunately for the Magic, it sounds like they won’t have Harris’ services for a period of time. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Harris suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee. The team is still in the process of gathering information on how long he will be sidelined, with Harris set to “undergo further evaluation.”

While losing Harris is a tough pill to swallow, Orlando has a number of young guards who could benefit from more playing time. That’s especially the case for second-year guard Jalen Suggs, who the team selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and had his growing pains during his rookie campaign. Orlando also has Markelle Fultz, Cole Anthony, and R.J. Hampton among its core of younger players in the backcourt.

Harris averaged 11.1 points in 28.4 minutes per game last season and connected on 38.4 percent of his attempts from three. He agreed to a 2-year contract extension with the team this offseason.

Is Donald Trump about to belatedly get his comeuppance? That’s what a lot of people think. The former president’s attempts to spin his latest potentially criminal act — absconding with highly classified government documents, lying about returning them all, and storing them in places like magazines — hasn’t been going so well, and it might even be worse than believed. While there are plenty of op-eds about this one finally being curtains for the big guy, add Jon Stewart to the list of skeptics.

The former Daily Show host and current star of The Problem with Jon Stewart used part of his most recent show to effectively say “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“What blows my mind about this whole thing is: Everybody’s got that thing that’s like, ‘Is this it? Is this the thing?’ And I keep trying to explain to people, ‘No. It’s not,’” Stewart said to his younger co-hosts. “Why does anybody believe that there will be accountability in this man’s life on this Earth?”

Stewart laid out just a couple of the deeds that should have gotten him busted but unaccountably didn’t. “He f*cked a porn star while his wife was giving birth. He paid the porn star $130,000 to keep it quiet. His wife is like, ‘Boys will be boys!’ And his lawyer goes to jail for it,” Stewart said. “His accountant is going to jail. Everyone around him goes to jail. He’s like the Mr. Magoo of absolved sins.”

He then compared everyone to those parents who always threaten to discipline their misbehaving child but can’t — the ones who say they’re counting to three but only get so far as two-and-a-half. “That’s who we are now,” he said.

Stewart also pointed out how he keeps trying to use evidence of his guilt as evidence of his innocence, as he’s done with the newly released affidavit that makes him look bad, even with all the redactions. “It’s like O.J. Simpson saying, ‘Look at this knife. It’s got a little blood on it, but c’mon!’” he joked.

You can watch Stewart talk Trump’s fate in the video above. That subject begins in earnest around the 4:45 mark.

Anthony Edwards is among the NBA’s most physical and explosive players. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ guard’s ability to both out-muscle opponents and blow by them is rare, and it’s part of the reason why he is viewed as one of the league’s most promising youngsters.

Edwards has received a ton of praise over the course of his professional career, and during a recent appearance on Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner’s “Point Forward” podcast, Dwyane Wade gave him quite the compliment. Wade guessed, just off of seeing how physically imposing he is, that the 6’4 Edwards is actually 6’8, and was stunned to learn that isn’t the case.

“I’m 6’4, he’s about what, 6’7, 6’8?” Wade asked.

“He’s not that tall, he’s only about 6’3 and a half,” Iguodala responded, which made Wade scream “WHAT?”

“When I played him in the season, I heard he grew again,” Iguodala said while Wade had a stunned look on his face. “So, I’m expecting to see a kid that’s looking me eye-to-eye or above. And I’m looking down on him, and I’m [like], ‘Bro, you’re only 6’4, you didn’t grow that much.’ He was like, ‘Nah, who said I grew?’”

Iguodala went on to say this is part of what makes Edwards such an impressive young player, and recalled a story of being on the receiving end of an Edwards in-and-out dribble that he was completely helpless against, going as far as to say that “it’s time for me to wrap it up” and comparing his ability to do some things on the floor to Wade.

It is Week 0 of the college football season. While there aren’t a ton of games happening, there are a few choice options on the schedule, with the most prominent of the bunch being the Big Ten West battle between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The game isn’t taking place in Evanston or Lincoln — instead, the two teams hopped on some planes and flew across the pond to Dublin for the latest college football game to happen in Ireland.

The game did take a very interesting turn at one point, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the football game. Apparently, the computers went down at Aviva Stadium, which meant that no one could buy beer. Instead of preventing people from getting something to drink, however, the solution to this problem was apparently to just hand out free cups of beer.

As it turns out, people like when they are offered free beer. Video recorded in the stadium of insanely long lines and packed concession areas, as fans, well, imagine you were told “hey the computers are down and they’re giving everyone free beer, wanna go grab one?”

An earnest congratulations to everyone who paid thousands of dollars to fly to Ireland for this game and got a free beer out of it.

Shaquille O’Neal is a flat earther. Well, he’s either a flat earth person or he has a lot of fun doing a bit, but here is what he said about the matter back in 2017 when Kyrie Irving made headlines for expressing his belief that the world is flat.

“It’s true. The Earth is flat,” O’Neal said. “There’s three ways to manipulate the mind: What you read, what you see, and what you hear. In school, first thing they teach us, ‘Oh, Columbus discovered America.’ But when you got there, it was some fair-skinned people with long hair smoking on peace pipes. So what does that tell you?”

Anyway, Shaq is decidedly at it again, as he appeared on an Australian radio show this week and got asked about this. When asked if it was real or a joke, Shaq said “it’s a theory” before diving into why, exactly, he posited this theory. It involves flying, and also, he has a bonus theory involving a lake.

“For example, I flew 20 hours today, not once did I go this way, I didn’t go straight,” Shaq said. “I didn’t tip over, I didn’t go upside-down.

“It’s still a straight line, you don’t go under,” Shaq said. “Another theory, how they said the world is spinning? I’ve been living in a house on a lake for 30 years, not once did the lake rotate to the left or rotate to the right.”

The most important thing here is this clip gives us reason to post the funniest moment in Inside the NBA history, which is the time Shaq asked how long of a flight it is to the moon.