Month: June 2023

As Donald Trump finds himself on the criminal end of a federal indictment for mishandling classified documents, a common refrain has emerged: He should’ve listened to his lawyers.

The handful of legal experts Trump hired to first stall a government probe, then defend him in court against its findings, are now speaking out about how “difficult” of a client the former president truly is and why his current legal clusterf*ck is one of his own making. Joseph diGenova, a former attorney for Trump, told Newsmax that the twice-impeached commander-in-chief made a “terrible mistake” in ignoring the advice of his lawyers in favor of directions from right-wing activists.

“Donald Trump is a very difficult client,” diGenova said. “I know the president. I’ve dealt with him. He’s a very stubborn man. He has a tendency to think he’s always right.”

Trump’s ego is apparently to blame for his most recent legal trouble after a Washington Post report revealed he chose to disregard his attorneys’ counsel and instead listen to Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative group Judicial Watch. Fitton supposedly told Trump what he wanted to hear — that he could keep his boxes upon boxes of stolen documents safely tucked away inside a Mar-a-Lago bathroom — and Trump followed his guidance instead of diGenova’s.

“He was advised by people close to him who were not the lawyers who were working on the case not to be cooperative,” diGenova explained, adding that the federal indictment could’ve been avoided if Trump had sought wiser counsel.

(Via RawStory)

Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 debut album Sour was a breakout hit, but when she was writing and recording it, she was a relative unknown in the music industry. So, there aren’t any collaborators on the project, except for producer and co-writer Dan Nigro. Now, though, she has revealed that the promotional cycle for her second album will kick off with a new single, “Vampire,” at the end of the month.

While it’s not clear if that song will have a collaborator on it, a social media post from Rodrigo has spawned speculation that Lana Del Rey will find her way onto the new album.

Yesterday (June 14), she shared a mirror selfie, with a lipstick mark on the glass partially obscuring her face. She captioned the post, “bang bang kiss kiss.”

One conclusion that could be reached from that is that Rodrigo had this selfie she liked and she came up with the caption based on a lyric from Lana Del Rey’s “Venice B*tch.” Del Rey, by the way, is an artist Rodrigo admires so much that she presented her with a trophy at the 2023 Billboard Women In Music Awards a few months ago.

The other conclusion, of course, is that this is Rodrigo’s way of indirectly letting her fans know that they can expect to hear Del Rey on an upcoming song. That’s certainly the leap that a lot of commenters on Rodrigo’s post made: “THE CAPTION? COLLAB W LANA??,” reads one comment that captures the spirit of many others that live alongside it.

We, like you, love French fries. Salted, seasoned, cheese fries, steak fries, home fries — if it’s potato and it’s fried, there is a high chance we’re going to love it. It’s the greatest side order in the game. Everything, yes everything, goes with French fries.

A few months back we blind taste-tested fast food French fries from five popular national chains and we came to the conclusion that, without a doubt, McDonald’s served up the best fries in the game. But, as I gave McDonald’s the top spot I couldn’t stop thinking about Five Guys, a restaurant chain we didn’t include in the ranking (it didn’t fit into the travel route of the other five, read the explanation here). Because truth be told, I think those might be my favorite fries.

Which begged the question: can our favorite fast food French fries (McD’s) beat out our favorite fast casual fries (Five Guys)? It’s time for a walk off — err… FRY-OFF. Tell ’em Billy Zane:

Wait, is Five Guys Really Fast Casual?

Fair question! “Fast Casual” is a term that is sort of meaningless in that the definition is incredibly vague. Oxford defines “fast casual” as “a type of high-quality self-service restaurant offering dishes that are prepared to order and more expensive than those available in a typical fast-food restaurant.” Which… okay, you overly elaborate nerds, Five Guys definitely fits that bill — each burger and order of fries are made to order. Five Guys won’t even drop the fries from your online order into the fryer until you walk in the door. The potatoes, which are sourced from different farms across the country and cut fresh daily certainly meet the quality requirement. Finally, a big criticism of Five Guys is that it’s expensive, a single order of fries will cost you nearly $5. So based on Oxford’s definition, Five Guys is as fast casual as fast casual gets.

But, unsurprisingly, that isn’t the only definition of “Fast casual,” and what of the casual aspect? What does it mean? When I ask AI what “fast casual” is It gives me this definition from Wikipedia, “A fast-casual restaurant is a type of restaurant that offers quick, made-to-order food in a casual setting… It is an intermediate concept between fast food and casual dining,” and lists “Upscale, unique or highly developed décor,” as another feature of a typical fast casual restaurant.

Hmmm… Five Guys’ food is quick and made to order, but there isn’t anything different about the inside of a Five Guys and the inside of any other fast food burger staple like McDonald’s. If anything, McDonald’s has a more upscale interior design than Five Guys. But I’d argue that Five Guys’ bare-bones style, from its cheap tables to serving your food in a brown paper bag whether you order it to go or not, is all part of the vibe. They want you to stay and soak in the setting, why else would they offer free peanuts and blast Boomer rock music over the loudspeakers (I guarantee you this is not for the employees)?

Also, they don’t have a drive-thru, which is another differentiating factor between fast casual and fast food, according to my editor who clearly isn’t thinking about this stuff as deeply as me. Anyway, we’re counting Five Guys as fast casual but you can do whatever you want — on to the tasting!

But First… Methodology

For this blind taste test, I posted up at Five Guys, ordered “little fries,” salted, and sent my girlfriend to the nearest McDonald’s to pick up a medium order of fries, hoping she’d arrive by the time my Five Guys order was ready. In order to have both dishes hot, I sampled them in a nearby parking lot. My job is extremely elegant.

Because the fries have a different look and texture, not only did I don my famous blindfold before being served a pinch of fries at random, but I ate both with a fork in the event that my hands were able to feel the difference. Is it a step too far? There is never a step too far! Did I look like a crazy person eating French fries on a napkin with a fork while wearing a blindfold in a parking lot? Absolutely.

A passerby remarked, “What are you doing?” And I said “eating French fries.” No response back. Not a peep. Okay, now, let’s get to tasting!

Finally, The Fast Food vs. Fast Casual French Fry Taste Test

Taste 1:

A nice crispy crunch on these fries makes way for a flavor that is equal parts buttery, sweet, and salty. The finish has this savory edge that calls you in for more. If I had to find something to complain about it would be that I can taste the grease — these fries are an oil sponge and I imagine that if they were a bit older they might be nearly inedible.

Taste 2:

Crispy, not like Taste 1, but it’s there, the inside is much more potato-forward and natural, it’s buttery but also earthy. While it’s not as crispy as Taste 1, the surface of the French fry has this lightly cavernous quality, allowing a place for the salt to house itself. It’s not as sweet or savory as Taste 1, but overall I think this offers a better and more complex profile of flavors.

With some pepper, I’m sure you could really take these things to the next level.

And The Winner Is…

Five Guys (with a caveat)

I’m sure at least half of the people — maybe more — reading this article won’t agree with me right away, but Five Guys wins this competition. Fairly easily. Don’t get me wrong, McDonald’s French Fries are nearly perfect, but the higher quality of Five Guys is something that you can truly taste.

McDonald’s wins on texture, they’re considerably crispier than Five Guys double-fried French fries, but that crispy exterior almost come across like a casing in comparison, as if what you’re tasting is actually batter and not potato at all.

Five Guys’ fries on the other hand take you on a journey from buttery to earthy, it’s delicate, but with a slightly bitter finish courtesy of the potato skin that hasn’t been peeled off. They taste more like potatoes than the oil they are fried in, and that makes them a winner in our book.

But! A “Little” order of Five Guys French fries will cost you over $5. Yes, you get more fries in a Five Guys “Little” than you do in a McDonald’s Large (they throw a second serving of fries into the bag with each order), but you’re paying nearly double what you can get at McDonald’s. Straight up, $5 for an order of fries is not cheap. Sure, they’re not frozen, yes, they’re double fried, and they’re sourced from an actual farm and don’t arrive in a frozen bag like McDonald’s fries, but you’re paying for all that, and it hurts.

For that reason, if money is not an option, sure, order Five Guys every time. But if you don’t want your entire paycheck eaten up by a fast food bill (a full meal at Five Guys will cost you $15+), McDonald’s fries are a great consolation prize for being a bit thrifty.

So if you have a craving for French fries, I’d say your best bet is at McDonald’s. If what you’re looking for is an excellent burger and a side of delicious French fries to match, it’s got to be Five Guys.

Championship parades are incredibly fun to watch because you get to see athletes and coaches let loose in a way you rarely would otherwise.

In Denver on Thursday, that meant you got to see things like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Stone Cold beers on a bus, or Michael Malone set a new record for the drunkest coach in recent championship parade history. Now, we’ve seen some strong contenders, as Mike Budenholzer in 2021 had enjoyed more than a few and Sean McVay was torched at the Rams parade that same year, but Malone was on another planet.

Let’s take a look at the highlights of our friend Michael, as he put on a performance for the ages.

He started off strong, hopping off the buses to spray champagne into the crowd, wearing sunglasses and a hat that got steadily more askew as the day wore on and the drink count piled up.

He also called himself “Mikey Malone” while doing a hit with Denver’s TV affiliate, which is wild considering he once got mad at a sideline reporter for calling him Mike instead of Michael, before proclaiming the Nuggets are some “greedy bastards” and are going to win another one.

However, he really hit his stride once the Nuggets took the stage for the championship rally, as he very drunkenly told the crowd that “Brucey B” wasn’t going anywhere because Denver is “running this shit back.”

He then split half a small bottle of Fireball with DeAndre Jordan, and I’m gonna break out the telestrator and really break this video down.

That is textbook hammered guy focus. Watch how his entire head moves up and down as DeAndre takes his swig, absolutely lasered in on that sweet, sweet cinnamon whiskey nectar.

He then takes his half down in one gulp, and look at the right wrist as Jordan gives him a hug, that is a man without full control of his motor skills.

Bruce softly caressing the Larry O’Brien also really makes this moment, but Malone is truly in rare form. He’s not at Jack Grealish’s level at the parade, but a strong 7.5 on the Grealish Scale, which is simply unheard of for a coach. I hope Mikey’s got some Gatorade stocked up and ready for tomorrow.

If you’re in the market for a used bathroom appliance, I’m sorry but you missed your chance on a toilet that belonged to an Oscar-winning actress. Try again tomorrow? Maybe Meryl Streep is selling her Squatty Potty.

Jennifer Lawrence told People that years ago, “Lee Eisenberg bought a toilet on Craigslist from my mom. My toilet.” The actress isn’t doxxing some random dude (unlike her middle school bully); Lee Eisenberg is the writing partner of Gene Stupnitsky, who directed Lawrence’s new movie, No Hard Feelings. Why was Lawrence’s mom selling her toilet? “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m like, ‘I broke it.’ My mom sold it for me.”

She adds that Eisenberg knew the identity of the seller at the time he purchased the bathroom fixture. “That’s how we know the story now,” she says. “So thanks, Mom.”

The Craigslist toilet came up because No Hard Feelings is based on a real Craigslist ad. “The director’s a good friend of mine, and we’ve been friends for a long time. And, we were getting dinner, and he showed me the Craiglist ad,” she told Good Morning America. “And I just thought it was hilarious. I, in no way, thought I was going to be in the movie… There was no movie. It was just the ad, and we laughed about it. And, four years later, he sent me the script.”

If No Hard Feelings gets a sequel, it should be about the used toilet. The title: No Hard Peelings (sorry).

(Via People)

The Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s HBO show The Idol has aired a few episodes now and the reception has not exactly been glowing. It has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score ever for an HBO show, some choice scenes have proven to be controversial, and the ratings have been a bit of a mixed bag. So, will there be a second season? According to one report, that’s not really clear at the moment.

Today (June 15), Page Six reported that a source suggested there will not be a second season, adding, “This was never meant to be a long-running show, it was always […] a limited series.” They also noted that HBO was not surprised by the reaction to the show, saying, “It’s a Sam Levinson show, and you know what you’re getting with a Sam Levinson show.”

A “source inside HBO” did reportedly say, though, “The door is definitely still open — it’s definitely not a decision [yet]. At this point, this is normal in our process. […] We’re only two episodes in.”

Meanwhile, the publication is also reporting that some found the experience of working with The Weeknd in character as Tedros to be difficult. One source said it was “not an ideal experience […] and not one I am eager to repeat,” while another source described him as “egomaniacal.” Another source, though, described him as “beloved,” saying, “He literally opened up his home for the cast and crew. Almost the entire show was shot inside his home.”

Vladimir Putin might be starting to see the writing on the wall. He recently admitted that Russia is performing terribly in his abysmal war on Ukraine. Then again, he’s still referring to his invasion as a “special operation,” and I’m starting to wonder if that “lesser” term is a strategy to paint an inevitable loss in a less severe light. Whatever the case, we’ve heard that Putin’s army has been failing to provide ammo to the Wagner Group, and Russian soldiers are already using ammo that’s so degraded that it could blow up in soldiers’ faces when a weapon is fired. Not ideal!

Now, Business Insider is reporting that Putin’s current army (because he’s had to rush to replace so many dead or injured troops) is so untrained that they don’t know how to repair their own broken-down stuff. As a result, Ukraine reveals that Russian soldiers are forcing Ukrainian techs to do their dirty work:

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s National Resistance Center said in a statement that Russian forces are bringing aged military equipment back into service, but “lack mechanics who can repair damaged or outdated vehicles.”

“Therefore, the enemy is forcibly engaging specialists,” it said. The allegation, which Insider was unable to independently corroborate, comes as both militaries in the conflict face a squeeze on equipment and ammunition.

As well, CNN recently compiled a gathering of Russian accounts that describe advances by Ukraine’s counter-offensive amid heavy fighting. Ukraine has also vowed to whoop ass and “fight Putin’s forces bare-handed” if it comes down to it, so Putin had better get his ultimate bunker ready.

(Via Business Insider, CNN & The Independent)

Nikola Jokic made one thing clear after the Denver Nuggets won the first championship in franchise history earlier this week: He really did not want to stay for the team’s championship parade on Thursday. Jokic expressed on multiple occasions that his strong preference was to simply go home, and when he was informed that the parade would not happen until Thursday, he briefly turned into the most upset person in the history of the world despite winning a championship, like, an hour earlier.

But getting to celebrate a championship around teammates, coaches, and staffers of various levels of drunkenness changes things a bit. Jokic stepped up to the microphone and addressed the fact that he didn’t want to be there, and told the crowd that he’s changed his mind.

“You know that I told that I didn’t want to stay on parade, but I f*cking want to stay on parade, this is the best day of my f*cking life,” Jokic said. “This is amazing, you’re all gonna remember this our whole life, and to see you guys that came out on the street — actually, this one is for you. We love you, Denver, this one is for you.”

It is unclear if Jokic will be able to make it back to Serbia in time to watch his horses on Sunday, but if he can’t he seems like he gets that this parade is worth it.

The general consensus is that Donald Trump is in a world of legal trouble after being indicted on federal charges, with some going so far to say that the former president is “scared sh*tless.” However, Trump’s campaign is reportedly having a very different reaction to the indictment. That reaction: Cha-ching!

According to CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Trump campaign insiders were growing concerned as donations began to lag. However, just like with Trump’s indictment in Manhattan, the new charges brought a much-needed boost. Sure, there’s a possibility Trump could die in prison, but look at all that sweet cash.

Via Raw Story:

“When I was talking to someone about this potential federal indictment, I actually had someone say to me on the campaign, ‘Well, I hope it comes before the fourth quarter meaning that they were hoping that they could get that fund-raising boost again if there was a federal indictment, and now we see they actually have.”

“I’m told they were a little bit concerned about it, that there had been a lag in those fund-raising numbers and they weren’t sure if there is going to be some kind of fatigue,” she continued. “He’s already been indicted; the shock, the surprise, is it gone, is the outrage gone? Clearly it’s not.”

With Trump facing even more indictments down the road, including his involvement in the January 6 attacks as well as more federal charges for mishandling documents at his New Jersey golf club, the former president could have quite the racket here.

“Whether or not this is a sustainable model to have lagging fundraising in the middle and then have an indictment, which his team does believe there are more indictments are coming, obviously has yet to be seen like most things with Donald Trump,” Holmes said.

(Via Raw Story)

Doja Cat is back. The mercurial artist announced the release date for her return single “Attention” earlier this week after what appeared to be a mix-up with the pre-save link. This came after several months in which the mischievous rapper/singer appeared to waver on her upcoming fourth album’s title, genre, and even seemingly whether she wanted to even continue making music. She went through a half-dozen extreme makeovers — some temporary, others more permanent — and trolled her fans.

And yet, all those changes are actually true to Doja Cat’s character. She has always cycled through aesthetics, personalities, and sounds throughout her career; that she continues to do so just proves that she remains true to herself, despite fans’ concerns that she “switched up.” For Doja, switching up is core to the persona that she’s cultivated from the very beginning. With a new album on the way, no one knows what to expect — not even, it seems, Doja herself — but considering how things have been going so far, that’s probably a very good thing anyway.

From the beginning, Doja Cat has demonstrated a chameleonlike ability to transform to suit either the needs of the song she’s making or her own, often esoteric whims. Take her breakout song, “Mooo!” for instance. Doja had already been signed and releasing music for some years before the jokey track skyrocketed her to national notoriety. But “Mooo!” was obviously a huge departure from the spacey, bohemian vibe of “So High,” released three years before, or the lighthearted, poppy sensibility of the cunnilingus anthem “Go To Town” from the year before.

Instead, “Mooo!” was Doja at her goofiest; in the homemade video, she morphed into an anime cowgirl, showing that she didn’t take herself too seriously and wasn’t exactly married to either image of herself as an incense-burning hippie or a latex-clad pop vixen. And when the backlash against “Mooo!” from hip-hop traditionalists grew from a dull roar to a loud insistence that the accomplished but relatively unknown performer didn’t have anything else to offer, she transformed again.

On Doja’s next album Hot Pink, she embraced a truly bewildering variety of both genres and looks, while also insisting that she was taking music more seriously. That promise paid off with the embrace of a pop-punk aesthetic in the video for “Bottom Bitch” and couture looks in the one for “Rules.” Meanwhile, Doja’s musical experimentation broadened, from the glitchy techno of “Addiction” to the rhythm-n-bass of “Like That” featuring Gucci Mane to the nu-disco of “Say So,” Doja’s first-ever No. 1 hit single.

With the onset of the pandemic and the shutdown of live entertainment, Doja showcased her gift for metamorphosis with a string of live performances of her smash, reimagining “Say So” as a heavy metal rocker and an orchestral ballad. She attributes this to her boredom with performing the same song over and over again in mostly empty rooms, but where many stars would get by with adding a live band and reshuffling some choreography, Doja let her imagination run wild.

Since then, we’ve seen a lot more examples of Doja Cat’s penchant for reinvention throughout the rollout and tour for her third album Planet Her, and in the run-up to her next album. At first, she proclaimed it would be a double album, with one half entirely produced by 9th Wonder. Then, it was just one album, leaning more heavily into the hip-hop proclivities she gleaned from coming up in LA’s Project Blowed-inspired underground rap scene.

Of course, then Doja says her ADHD kicked in, prompting her to envision the album as a collection of R&B songs, then as punk. In the meantime, she underwent dramatic physical changes as well, shaving her head and eyebrows and railing against industry standards that demand women look “f*ckable” at all times. She adorned herself with a litany of tattoos, from 15th-century grotesqueries to anatomical diagrams. With her new aesthetics, she seems very much to be challenging the expectation of polished perfection that accompanied her prior pop-oriented efforts.

She changed the speculative title of her album from Hellmouth to Scarlet (at least, that’s what fans believe it’ll be called after some cryptic social media posts from Doja), implying a rebellion against traditional femininity either way. The term “Hellmouth” comes from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer franchise, which satirized horror conventions positioning women as frail victims or traumatized final girls with its high-indestructible, valley girl vampire killing machine.

And “scarlet woman” is a term that has long been bandied by the patriarchy to slander women who enjoy their sexual freedoms. It also evokes blood, like the cover art for “Attention” — a fluid whose association with women has always been one known to make men feel a little squeamish. Those wimps. So, it looks like Doja Cat is once again aiming to mutate into a new form, the consummate shapeshifter. This time, though, her new guise, whatever it is, will be for her and not for us. Even so, everybody wins.