Year: 2022

“Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work.”

That’s Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, claiming (in the same interview where she revealed that she attended the failed coup on January 6th) that she and her husband don’t talk politics. That may be true (marriage is a lot like an orange, after all), but she’s apparently comfortable texting Donald Trump’s former-chief of staff about overturning the 2020 presidential election.

CBS News and the Washington Post report that Thomas “repeatedly pressed” Meadows about the election “in urgent text exchanges in the weeks following the vote.”

Those messages — part of 29 total messages obtained — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and then-President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to subvert the election results. The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to encourage and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election results — and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice.

On November 10, 2020, three days after CNN called the election for Joe Biden, Thomas texted, “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!…You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.” Two weeks later, Meadows wrote, “This is a fight of good versus evil. Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.” She replied: “Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now… I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!” It’s unknown who the “best friend” is.

You can read more at the Washington Post.

(Via CBS News and the Washington Post)

It’s a common belief that disabilities make it impossible to do certain things. Sometimes that’s true—but not nearly as often as people might assume. With the right support and accommodations, people with all manner of disabilities can participate in far more activities than society expects.

Take, for instance, a team sport like basketball. Can a person who can’t see play that sport? How would they know where they are on the court? How would they know where to throw the ball or locate where the basket is? How could they keep track of where their teammates are and what they’re doing?

Without a little imagination in answering them, those questions seem like they’d exclude blind people from being able to play basketball. However, when inclusion is the goal, human beings can figure out all kinds of ways to make the seemingly impossible happen.

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High school basketball player Jules Hoogland is completely blind. As a junior at Zeeland East High School in Michigan, Hoogland plays on Zeeland’s Unified Sports team made up of students with and without disabilities.

As she set up for a free throw, the crowd fell into a hush so Hoogland could hear the tapping of the basket so she could put the ball in the right spot. A fellow player ensured she was positioned for the shot, and Hoogland nailed it.

Watch:

Not only was it a great shot, it was an awesome example of what support and inclusion can look like from both a school and a community.

Unified Sports is a program by Special Olympics that promotes inclusion in sports by bringing people with and without intellectual or physical disabilities together to play on the same team. Unified Sports teams are made up of people of similar age and skill to create a level playing field and to make practices and games both challenging and fun.

The goal is not so much for those without disabilities to “help” those with; rather, it’s a way to empower everyone to have fun together through sports. Teammates work together to play their personal and collective best for the good of the team.

According to Special Olympics, about 1.4 million people worldwide take part in Unified Sports. What a beautiful way for everyone to benefit from the fun and camaraderie sports can provide, and to provide a way for people of all abilities and disabilities to build bonds of friendship.

The Memphis Grizzlies hold a two-game lead on the Golden State Warriors for the 2-seed in the West with just nine games to go, and they are all but assured a top-3 spot and at minimum homecourt in the first round of the playoffs.

The stretch run for Memphis will not provide much in the way of opportunity for a dress rehearsal for the playoffs, though, as they will be without their All-Star point guard for the next two weeks, at minimum, as Ja Morant deals with soreness in his right knee. Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins announced Morant, who missed the last two games for Memphis, would be re-evaluated in two weeks, but did indicate that this seemed to be more precautionary, noting the expectation is he’s at full strength for the playoffs.

The good news for the Grizzlies is they have been sensational without Morant in the lineup this season, going 15-2 in his absence so far this year, most recently taking down the Brooklyn Nets on national TV on Wednesday night. Having Morant at full strength is of utmost concern at this point, and their position certainly affords them some cushion to be cautious with their young star. Even with Morant out, they still are favored to finish in the 2-seed and then would await the winner of the first play-in game in the West to learn their opponent.

Last April, Nike failed to reach an agreement with Vanessa Bryant regarding the future of their line of Kobe sneakers and had to halt production and distribution of the extremely popular shoes. Some prototypes, including a Mambacita pair, still made their way out into the hands of some of their NBA players, which irked Vanessa and since then players have only been able to wear colorways they were able to stockpile.

The Kobe line is the most popular sneaker in the league, so many players were worried about having to find a new shoe to wear once their stash ran out, but those players and fans of the line in general received some good news on Thursday. Vanessa Bryant announced on Instagram that nearly a year after declining to renew the contract with Nike, she had reached an agreement with the sneaker giant to bring the Kobe line back as well as Gigi merchandise, with Nike donating all net proceeds from the Gigi line to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation and working with Bryant on building a new youth basketball center in Southern California.

We’re excited to announce our partnership with Nike is going to continue! I am so proud that my husband’s shoes are still the most worn by players on NBA courts and that the demand for his shoes remain so desired by his fans around the world. With this new partnership, fans will soon be able to have access to Kobe and Gigi Nike product for years to come and with Nike donating 100% of the net proceeds yearly for Gianna’s shoes to our Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation (M&MSF). I am also grateful that Nike and I will work together to establish a youth basketball center in Southern California that will share the Mamba Mentality with youth athletes for generations to come. I know this is an inspiring moment for my husband and daughter’s global fans, and I am very appreciative of each and every one of you!

With Gratitude for every fan around the world supporting Kobe and Gigis Legacy,
Vanessa Bryant

It’s great to see Nike finding away to reconcile with Vanessa and get this deal done to allow fans to continue getting the ever-popular line of sneakers, while also supporting a good cause as well with Gigi merchandise. There’s no word on exactly when the Kobe line will return to retailers and Nike’s online store, but given they were in production on a few retros last year when the contract got pulled, one would think they have some product to put out fairly soon.

(Spoilers for Bridgerton, including Season 2, will be found below.)

It’s almost go-time for the second Bridgerton season, and there will be Lady Whistledown’s gossip aplenty along with a new principal romance, and over all, this batch of episodes will please fans, even without Regé-Jean Page’s Duke in sight. There’s a huge Season 1 easter egg that must be discussed, though, and it gives clues for Season 2, so if you want to (totally) avoid what’s coming next, please click away.

Yup, click away if you want no clues from Julia Quinn’s books.
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Alright, let’s talk about the bees of Bridgerton.

These little buzzing critters are seen on occasion (like, for example, on a door knocker) in the first season, as above, during the final moments when the camera panned to this ^^^^ windowsill after Daphne and Duke Simon welcomed their first child into the world. This has to do with Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), who’s the male lead of Season 2. Before this scene, we saw Anthony telling Daphne and Simon how he didn’t really see himself marrying for love but, instead, for duty.

This gives us a heads-up that Anthony is one stressed out dude. He’s essentially the Bridgerton patriarch before his time, and this is the case because of a damned bee. What gives?

According to Julia Quinn’s books, Anthony is deathly afraid of bees and is actually traumatized by them. That’s because his father died from a bee sting, and that had everything to do with shaping the person that he is today. Season 2 goes into the before-and-after of the bees’ insertion into Anthony’s life. His fears affect his search for love and how he prioritizes within life, and they cause him to make assumptions about how life should be lived. All of that gets knocked out of the water when Kate and Edwina Sharma surface for courting season.

In short, Anthony’s life will never be the same, and nope, the bees are not gone forever. Soon, you can see it all unfold on your streaming device.

‘Bridgerton’ returns to Netflix on March 25.

South Korean indie band Say Sue Me delightfully emerged on a 2017 self-titled debut that culled from classic 90s indie, shoegaze, and surf rock vibes. Led by singer-guitarist Sumi Choi, the quartet were SXSW darlings and it was nothing short of joyful to see a South Korean band who was not only inspired by classic indie but were so damn good at making it themselves.

Today, Say Sue Me have announced the new album, The Last Thing Left, due out on May 13th. As the follow-up to 2018’s Where We Were Together, the new album seeks to pick up the pieces of the grief that set in four years ago when drummer Semin Kang was dealing with a terminal illness. Kang passed away in 2019 and The Last Thing Left tackles love and hope amid the loss of a dear friend that the Busan-based band experienced. “This album has the theme of some realization, eventually the realization of love,” Choi says. “Love in relationships, love for oneself, and the ultimate love gained after realizing those two things.”

Lead single “Around You” has a riff that’s as cute as Choi’s lyrics. “I’ll be better when I’m around you,” she sings, in the upbeat tune. The band wrote this song at the beginning of the pandemic when they self-produced the album in their Busan studio. Choi says it was written “in a world where it became difficult to go outside and meet people freely. I felt like time is totally mine, but I still don’t know how to control it. My thoughts linger and dwell within me and my youth is slipping away. Perhaps when I go outside something is waiting for me that makes me think better than this!”

“Around You” is sure to boost your spirits and you can watch the video for it above.

The Last Thing Left is due out on 05/13 via Damnably. Pre-order it here.

Anyone raising small kids — or who has been in their immediate vicinity in the last five years — knows (and is likely sick to death) of South Korean entertainment company Pinkfong’s near-ubiquitous and insanely popular version of the song “Baby Shark.” Originally a campfire song inspired by Jaws (the ’80s were a weird time, man), the Pinkfong version has become one of the most-played videos on YouTube (10 billion views and counting, as of this January) and was spun off into a Nick Jr. animated series, Baby Shark’s Big Show!

As a mom herself, Cardi B has likely contributed .01 percent of those view totals herself (that’s a million, folks) but being Cardi B, she’s found a way to turn what may have been a frustrating parental imperative into a potentially lucrative opportunity: Billboard reports the “Up” rapper will guest star on Baby Shark’s Big Show! alongside her husband Offset and three-year-old Kulture. Cardi will portray an animated version of herself called Sharki B, while Offset will be Offshark, and she’ll perform a new song called “The Seaweed Sway.”

Cardi is actually a big fan of “Baby Shark,” as you can see from the video she posted back in 2019, while she also tweeted that Kulture is a big fan of the “whole Baby Shark mixtape.” While this is almost certainly a dream come true for Kulture, Cardi’s beef with Peppa Pig remains unresolved. Maybe she can turn that into a guest-starring role too.

Cardi’s guest-starring episode of Baby Shark’s Big Show! will air 04/15 on Nickelodeon/Nick Jr.

In January, it was announced that Keanu Reeves had joined the lineup for this year’s Tibet House U.S. Benefit Concert, alongside Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Cyndi Lauper, and Patti Smith, among others. This led to Chinese nationalists threatening to boycott The Matrix Resurrections — even though it had already been released in the country (it opened to a lackluster $7.5 million). The pro-Tibet benefit show, where Reeves read a poem, was held on March 3 and “came and went with no apparent consequences for Reeves,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “But the axe has now fallen.”

Last Monday, China’s major streamers removed the vast majority of Reeves’ filmography from their sites and wiped search results related to his name in Chinese — the cumbersome transliteration “Jinu Liweisi.”

“Sorry, no results related to ‘Keanu Reeves’ were found,” the platform iQiyi now states, adding: “Due to relevant laws, regulations and policies, some results are not shown.”

Most of Reeves’ best-known movies have been removed, including the John Wick and The Matrix franchises and Speed (Speed 2: Cruise Control might be available), with one exception. Toy Story 4, featuring the voice of Reeves as motorcycle daredevil Duke Caboom, still appears on Chinese streaming services, but “its credits are unusual: They unfurl in English except for the voice cast, which alone switches over to Chinese and lists only the local dubbing cast, avoiding any mention of Reeves’ name.”

If Keanu ever makes a movie with a Phish song on the soundtrack, it will be China’s most banned film ever.

(Via the Los Angeles Times)

What is a glimmer? No I’m not talking about “Twilight” vampires or the princess from my favorite Netflix cartoon.

Glimmering is the opposite of a trigger. A word we’ve all become very familiar with.

Where triggers tighten our stomachs, make it hard to breath and generally signal danger (even when no danger is present), a glimmer gives us a sigh of relief, helping us to feel safe and secure. And though both terms were identified by psychologist Deb Dana in her book “The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy,” most of us have only been taught to find what triggers us in life. Because, well, we have to survive before we can thrive.

But thanks to TikTok savvy therapists such as Dr. Justine, glimmers have taken on new life and people are excited to learn about the concept. You could say that finding new ways to reclaim hope is indeed going viral.

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In a video that has now been viewed over 78,000 times, Dr. Justine breaks down the glimmer basics.

@heydrjustine Glimmers✨ are the opposite of triggers. #AVrboForTogether #SoFiBreakUpChallenge #AlaskaAirCAREoke #anxietyrelief #nervoussystem #traumahealing ♬ New Home – Austin Farwell

“Glimmers are anything that sparks a sense of joy, awe, or belongingness. It can be noticing the warmth of the sun, something beautiful around you, or seeing a kind face,” her caption reads.

If this sounds enticing to you, you’re not alone. One person—clearly eager to find their own sparks of joy—wrote, “ugh yes love glimmer hunting.”

Which begs the question: How can we form a glimmer hunting group?

“Purposely noticing glimmers allows you to tap into micro moments on Ventral Vagal energy (a state of groundedness and connectedness),” Dr. Justine continues.

The vagus nerve carries messages from our brain to other parts of our body. It’s what sends you into flight-or-fight mode when there’s a perceived threat. Mine happens to go on the fritz anytime I’m riding in the passenger seat. And I mean every time. My shoulders go up to my ears, everything appears to move chaotically and I can’t resist the urge to hold onto the grab handle for dear life. It doesn’t matter who’s driving. It always feels like I’m careening down the fast lane toward my doom. That’s the vagus nerve, doing vagus nervy things.

However, that same nerve can stimulate a completely different sensation: calm. Yes, our bodies are quite literally a walking bundle of contradictions. But we can use that to our advantage by finding the glimmers.

The glimmers we find can be simple. A walk in nature, pet cuddles, our favorite song. Even the smallest, most fleeting moments can help activate our vagus nerve to send a signal to our body that says, “Hey, we can relax, everything is perfectly OK right now.”

And the best part is: By holding onto these feelings for at least 30 seconds, we can teach our brains to consistently retain positive thoughts. Or, as Dr. Justine puts it, “turn that glimmer into a glow.”

“This is my first time hearing this word and ima hold on tight to it,” one person commented, ready for their glow up.

Dr. Justine adds “doing this purposefully is important because humans have a negativity bias towards scanning for threats/danger (especially after trauma).”

We are already hardwired to scan for the negative. Again, survival trumps all. But after a traumatic event, our drive to protect ourselves is even more hypervigilant. And yet, safety cues are just as important as danger cues. Regulation is just as vital to our health and stimulation. Balance is often the foundation to our well-being.

“This is fascinating, scientifically supporting the old saying about stopping to smell the roses,” one person noticed.

After watching Dr. Justine’s video, people started sharing their own glimmers. Three rainbows. The smell of lavender. The cracking of creme brulee. A hit of fresh air. Small things that still managed to light folks up in a big way. This is what glimmering is all about. It was a very happy comment section.

If geeking out on science is a form of glimmering for you, you could always read Deb Dana’s book. Or you could check out Dr. Justine’s TikTok for more bite-sized information. Or hey, just go back to basics and smell the roses. There doesn’t seem to be a wrong way to glimmer. What matters is knowing it can dramatically change your mental health.

“Badda ba ba ba…I’m loving it.”

That iconic jingle for McDonald’s came out nearly 20 years ago. And to this day, it’s one of the most recognizable jingles of all time. In the commercial world, that should equate to striking microtune gold.

But for rapper Pusha T–who has long been outspoken about writing those lyrics for a small one-time fee–it was anything but.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the rap kingpin shared that in his early years, he and his brother Malice wrote the song for close to a million dollars—with zero royalties. Which, as Pusha puts it, is “pennies” considering the ad’s shelf life.

Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake, who first recorded the jingle, received $6 million. Was it because Timberlake was a bigger name? Or was a white pop singer better able to sell hamburgers to America than a Black rapper in the eyes of the advertisers? That is a question up for debate, but the payment discrepancy is not.

Either way, Pusha T regretted the decision. He told Rolling Stone, “I did it at a very young age, at a very young time in my career where I wasn’t asking for as much money and ownership. It’s something that’s always dug at me later in life like, ‘Dammit, I was a part of this and I should have more stake.’ I had to get that energy off me.”

This is where “Diss the Fish” comes in. And boy … it’s spicier than a Diablo Dare.

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Pusha T teamed up with Arby’s to create a part advertisement, part insult missile aimed directly at the Golden Arches. And it’s not only a hilarious roast, it’s also further proof that Pusha is beyond talented as a wordsmith. Especially when it comes to clever comebacks. Let us not forget his famous quarrel with Drake, who also found himself on the receiving end of some savage lyrical blows.

Pusha starts off with a bold proclamation and sly nod (“I’m the reason that the whole world love it”) before calling out the famous Filet-O-Fish sandwich for its, let’s be honest, odd shape. “How dare you sell a square fish, asking us to trust it.” He threw in the words “basic,” “tasteless” and “drown in tartar sauce” to really paint the picture.

And what’s a rap song without making a dig about how little money the other guy has? The video also shows a generic clown running with money bags following the words, “a half slice of cheese. Mickey D’s on a budget?”

Arby’s fish sandwich, on the other hand, “is simply it. With lines around the corner, we might need a guest list.”

Will this be the beginning of a fast food fish feud? Time will tell. But for Pusha, it marks closure.

“I had to get that energy off me, and this [ad] was the perfect way.”

Ba da ba ba ba … he’s over it.

You can watch the full video below. And remember, never buy “a little cube of fish from a clown.”