Month: October 2022

There’s less than a month left before Election Day, and in the home stretch it appears one race has gotten more bananas than the one between Dr. Oz and John Fetterman. In the last three days, the following things have happened to Herschel Walker, the footballer-turned-Georgia congressional candidate: He, a staunch anti-abortion advocate, has been accused of paying for a woman’s abortion, and his own son has publicly turned on him. Now there’s yet another twist in this very twisty story.

As per The Daily Beast, who broke the abortion story on Monday, have revealed that the woman who made said accusation is the mother of one of his children. The woman, whose name has not been made public, had a yearslong relationship with Walker, which resulted in an abortion as well as a kid — one of three he kept secret until this year. She’s remaining anonymous to protect her child, but she provided proof to The Daily Beast that she is the mother of one of the kids he said was his.

Since the news broke, Walker has denied the report, with lots of hand-holding from Republican media. Some in conservative circles have said the quiet part loud, admitting they don’t care if Walker had an abortion — or if he lied about it — because they just want to win a Senate seat for the GOP. Meanwhile, Walker’s own son, Christian — a Gen Z MAGA cheerleader, who has publicly supported his father’s campaign — has done a 180, turning on him with great ferocity.

But we’re sure Walker — who before all this mess was known for doing things like not knowing how many states are in the U.S. — will be on Fox News soon to assert his innocence.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The Golden State Warriors figured to be coming into the 2022-23 season with great vibes as the defending champs and most of their key players back for a title defense.

That stood in stark contrast to some other hopeful West contenders that are dealing with serious clouds hanging over them. Most notably, the Suns are having to work through the Robert Sarver scandal and sale of the team, as well as Deandre Ayton’s frustration with how they handled his free agency, while the Lakers have Russell Westbrook trade rumors continuing to swirl.

However, it’s not necessarily all great in the Bay despite getting ready for ring night on October 18, as a report from Shams Charania, Marcus Thompson, and Anthony Slater of The Athletic dropped Wednesday night about a practice fight that could lead to internal discipline for Draymond Green.

When a heated interaction with guard Jordan Poole escalated, Green forcefully struck Poole and needed to be separated swiftly, sources said. Green and Poole came chest-to-chest, with both players pushing and shoving each other prior to Green’s escalation of the physical altercation, those sources said.

The report goes on to state that practice was stopped so nerves could calm down but the team believes “a line was crossed” beyond the regular arguments Green and Poole have, and that some form of discipline for Green is “imminent.” What that entails remains to be seen, but the last time Draymond got into an altercation with a teammate — the infamous bench argument with Kevin Durant that spilled over into the locker room — the team gave him a one game suspension.

We’ll see if the Warriors want to make such a statement again to Green, but a suspension from the regular season opener that will also be ring night seems like a thing the team wouldn’t want to do if they can avoid it. As for the details, we still await exact word on what happened but I’m sure Green will dive into it on a future episode of his podcast.

For the third time in just over a month, another backstage altercation has reportedly taken place and Andrade has been sent home from television, according to TMZ.

According to the report, words were exchanged following a tense week of social media beef before Guevara allegedly pushed Andrade, which resulted in punches being thrown. Guevara’s issues with Andrade stem from the latter’s comments earlier this week on Guevara complaining about being hit too hard.

The duo then went back and forth, with Guevara calling Andrade a jobber, Andrade claiming he said it to Guevara’s face, Guevara calling Andrade a liar, and Andrade saying “see you Wednesday.”

The apparent backstage issue resulted in Andrade’s match slated for Friday night Rampage to be called off ahead of the third anniversary of AEW Dynamite.

Andrade is not the first AEW star to have an altercation with Guevara, after Eddie Kingston got physical with the former TNT champion after being called a “fat piece of shit” during an unaired promo. The apparent issues with Guevara also come after Fightful reported that Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky, and Sonjay Dutt found him difficult to work with.

The other altercation in the span of about a month is the infamous alleged brawl involving CM Punk, the Young Bucks, and others.

Atlanta rapper Kali is back with new music. Today, she shared a new song called “Bout U” with a video full of partying. The track has a booming bass on top of which Kali repeats the title with an addictively infectious melody in her signature whisper-rap voice for which listeners love her.

“Bout U” follows her August release, “Wet,” which came with a video of her and her friends causing mischief at a pool party. She was also featured on Baby Tate’s new album Mani/Pedi that just came out a few days ago, spicing up the track “Slut Him Out Again.”

In our recent interview with Kali, she talked about her disinterest in making sad music. “I always hear girls, even myself… We’d be like, ‘Oh, I would never, I wouldn’t do him like that.’ But, we got enough music telling us that, enough sad music to cry about. It’s time to just be like, ‘You know what? He did it to you, why you can’t do it to him?’” she said. “Summer Walker’s stuff had just came out. Everybody sliding down walls, and crying. It was just like, ‘No, that’s not the vibes anymore.’”

Watch the video for “Bout U” above.

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

The Sixers and Cavs met on Wednesday night in Philadelphia in a highly entertaining preseason contest, thanks in large part to the fact that both teams trotted out their stars for the first half of the game.

Donovan Mitchell made his Cavs debut alongside Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, with Evan Mobley the only core piece missing as he deals with an ankle sprain. On the other side, Joel Embiid, James Harden, Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, and PJ Tucker all played after Embiid, Harden, and Tucker sat out in Brooklyn in the preseason opener. The result was a highly competitive preseason game that gave us a first look at the Mitchell-Garland pairing as well as a chance to see how Harden looked after a rough end to last season in the playoffs.

Both fan bases will come away pleased with what they saw, as Mitchell and Garland applied constant rim pressure for the Cavs, while Harden looked to have considerably more burst than we saw him with in the playoffs. Harden struggled at times to even shake mismatches late last year, but in this one, he got back to his old tricks by literally dropping Dean Wade in isolation, crossing him over to the point that Wade fell face first into Harden trying to stay with him.

It’s not quite Harden’s crossover on Wesley Johnson from his Rockets days, but it’s some vintage Harden to get Wade leaning and then hit him with the quick crossover to get the poor guy’s feet all tangled up, as they go in opposite directions, clipping together and causing him to fall headfirst into Harden as he pulled up for the free throw line jumper.

Harden rightfully wasn’t pleased with the no-call, as he should’ve gotten an and-1 as Wade fouls him with his face slamming into Harden’s arm, but no matter it’s a highlight reel play and provides a touch of optimism for Harden getting his burst back this season.

During a sprawling, excellent episode of WTF With Marc Maron, writer/director Tony Gilroy discussed the versions of law firm fixer drama Michael Clayton that never came to be.

On the one hand: great! Michael Clayton is an icon, so imagining it being different is an exercise in chewing tinfoil.

On the other hand, learning how the sausage gets made is mindboggling here, particularly when an alternate universe got to see an Alec Baldwin-starring version of the movie come out just as the Iraq War got rolling. Gilroy told Maron that he spent 6 years trying to get Michael Clayton made, and at one point had Baldwin and Ben Kingsley paired up on a streamlined, $11 million version in the early 2000s. Throughout the rewrite process, he also circled a dozen different plots and situations for Clayton to deal with, driving himself crazy with doubt about what the movie was even supposed to be.

From what we can tell, this may be the first time the potential Baldwin version has been made public, but Gilroy also spoke about how Denzel Washington was close to starring as well. Missing out on the project is something Washington has lamented openly.

“With Clayton, it was the best material I had read in a long time, but I was nervous about a first-time director, and I was wrong. It happens,” Washington told GQ in 2012.

It’s easy to look back with regret, but at the time it wasn’t a sure thing that the writer behind the Bourne movies could also direct. Turns out he really, really could. Fortunately for all involved (in this universe), we got George Clooney giving a career-defining performance in one of the best films of the aughts.

Gilroy’s latest is Andor, which takes place in a galaxy far, far away. So it probably got the Baldwin version.

(via WTF)

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“Apparently the COVID pandemic is really over,” one person tweeted.

“The end of the pandemic is nigh!!!!!!,” another added, right next to a picture of their free granola sample.

Some even got genuinely emotional. “The sample station is officially BACK after the last several years at Trader Joe’s and I am not kidding when I say that I shed a genuine tear. One of life’s greatest pleasures,” commented one person.

The sample station is officially BACK after the last several years at Trader Joe’s and I am not kidding when I say that I shed a genuine tear. One of life’s greatest pleasures 😭

— Roger Dawley (@rogerdawley) October 1, 2022

Trader Joe’s is certainly not the first to bring back free samples. Costco, Sam’s Club and Whole Foods have previously brought them back using different COVID precautions. But Trader Joe’s fanatics are just a different breed—the store has its own cult-like following, so of course the response to seeing its quirky snacks laid out again is going to get an overwhelmingly positive response.

As CNN pointed out, sampling is a major sales strategy not only for retailers, but for small, up-and-coming brands trying to raise awareness (as a former demo girl, I can also attest to this). The return of this beloved staple also signals opportunities for startup food companies to recover. Basically—a win for TJ’s, a win for startups and a win for sample-hungry shoppers yearning for simple comforts. Win, win, win.

Sometimes the best news is bite-sized.

“The talk” is a moment a lot of parents dread having with their children. Sex is a complicated issue so it’s understandable that parents feel uncomfortable breaching that boundary with their kids and explaining such a delicate topic.

Kadyn Smith, a mom in California, got more than 2.5 million views of a video she posted on TikTok because of her incredible ability to navigate the topic with her 3-year-old daughter, Blakely. Smith told Blakely she was going to be a big sister for the second time and recorded the conversation to post on social media.

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@kadynsmithsmith

😂🥰🤍 #pregnant #momtok #momsoftiktok #toddlertok #toddlersoftiktok #baby

Blakely had a lot of big questions for her mother:

“What is it?”

“Is it gonna come out when it’s big?”

“Is it sleeping?”

“Is it gonna tickle me?”

Then, she got to the biggest one. “How can a baby get in your tummy?” she wondered as she put her hand on Smith’s belly, to which Smith had a great response, “Mommy and Daddy put it there.”

“Did you open your tummy and then the baby got in there?” Blakely asked. “Yeah,” Smith responded.

Smith told TODAY Parents she was totally caught off guard by Blakely’s question. “I had no idea that was coming. You can hear me take a pause,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘uhh.'”

Smith got a lot of love on TikTok for her ability to sidestep the question while providing an answer that satisfied her daughter. “Hahahah every parent completely understood the delay to HOW baby got there,” Lynne Harris-Reginer wrote in the comments. “Good answer mommy goooood answer. Fast thinking, too,” Lillyrae570 added.

Parents shared how their kids responded to the “how did a baby get in your tummy” question.

“When I told my daughter that I have a baby in my tummy, her first response was: you ate it?” Ronnie wrote. “My daughter cried when I told her there was a baby in my tummy. She said I must stop eating babies,” Nokubonga Dube 910 wrote.

See on Instagram

Smith’s answer sounded great to a lot of people’s ears, but what do the experts say?

Parent coach Dawn Huebner, author of “What to Do When You Worry Too Much,” says to be simple and straightforward while also using the proper words to describe our organs. “I’m an advocate of correct terminology,” she told Today’s Parent, “so I’d say something like, ‘Mommies have a special part in their body called a uterus. That’s where babies grow.’”

Robin Elise Weiss, Ph.D., adds that if a child asks the question and you’re unprepared, it’s OK to think on it for a few minutes before returning with a response. She says that’s also acceptable to explain biology in an age-appropriate way. “You can explain that a baby grows from sperm and an egg in the way fruit grows from a seed,” she told Verywell Family.

All in all, Smith did a great job thinking on her feet and showed just how challenging parenting can be. The most important thing is that she listened, rolled with it and gave it her best shot. That’s what being great mom is all about.

Freddie Gibbs is dominating the hip-hop world right now, after unleashing his new album Soul Sold Separately. It features Pusha T, Offset, Rick Ross, and Anderson .Paak and has been receiving a massive wave of praise and appreciation as listeners dig in.

The rapper is giving fans even more. Today he released the video for the track “Dark Hearted,” which is produced by James Blake and was the second single off the record, following “Too Much,” his collaboration with Moneybagg Yo. The new video is animated, showing Gibbs in cartoon form as he drives in a high-stakes car chase involving rabbits, grenades, and even — spoiler alert — a UFO.

Fans know that rabbits are a key image in Gibbs’s music. Another track on his album is called “Rabbit Vision,” which helped lay to rest his old beef with Jeezy: “Me and Jeezy still ain’t spoke in years / But I got love for him / Could’ve talked it out, but I spoke out, I let it get to me / Showed me I could be a f*cking boss, best thing he did for me,” he raps on the track.

Watch the video for “Dark Hearted” above.

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

Mitch McConnell may not be a Supreme Court justice, but he’s arguably the one responsible for all the out-of-control, far right rulings the bench unleashed over the summer. He’s why, among other things, abortion is no longer safe and legal across these United States. It’s he who blocked Obama from nominating Merrick Garland. It’s he who pushed through dodgy Brett Kavanaugh and rushed through Amy Coney Barrett. And for his troubles, he’s got a dildo modeled after him.

As per Mashable, the sexual wellness company Dame and the creative agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address teamed up to bring you a limited edition McConnell dildo, under the banner “Get F*cked by the Government On Your Terms.” Only 500 exist, but 100% of the profits go to fighting for abortion rights.

“We wanted to engage in the discourse, raise funds, and have fun doing it,” wrote Dame founder and CEO Alexandra Fine in the press release. “Pleasure is our guiding force and we need autonomy over our bodies in order to enjoy them.”

It’s not clear how long it is — maybe it’s appropriately short — but it only comes in one color: ice blue, presumably like McConnell’s soul. It is currently available for pre-order, which one can do here.

The McConnell dildo comes at a time when Americans are finding out what the GOP really thinks about abortion. Even those who say they want to outright ban it, no exceptions, have been credibly accused of funding at least one themselves.

(Via Mashable)