Month: June 2023

There are plenty of things that political-nepo-baby-turned-anti-vaxxer-presidential-candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. doesn’t know. How to correctly do a push-up. The average cost of a gallon of milk (probably). How Prozac works. When to just shut up.

But none of that really matters to Republicans who seem happy to use his conspiracy-fueled campaign to hurt Joe Biden’s bid for a second term in office. In fact, RFK, Jr.’s strategy of tanking his party’s White House hopes by regurgitating baseless vaccine misinformation and faux outrage over COVID-19 mandates is so popular amongst the GOP that even Donald Trump is a fan.

In a New York Times report charting RFK, Jr.’s presidential bid, plenty of right-wing supporters championed the man who hails from a political dynasty that should represent everything they hate about the D.C. swamp. RFK, Jr. is a one-percenter, a coastal elite whose fathers, aunts, and uncles helped shape Democratic ideals Republicans seem to abhor like Civil Rights. But as soon as he word vomits fascist buzzwords like “censorship,” “mainstream media” and “government conspiracy,” RFK, Jr. transforms into a political puppet for the MAGA cult. And Trump sounds like he’s more than happy to use his tiny hands to pull the guy’s strings.

During an appearance on The Howie Carr Show Monday, Trump gave RFK, Jr. some encouragement.

“Just hang in,” he said. “He’s been very nice to me, I’ve actually had a very nice relationship with him over the years. He’s a very smart guy and a good guy.”

Trump went on to basically campaign for RFK, Jr., who he considered for a role in his White House as a vaccine czar before the pandemic hit. “He’s a common sense guy and so am I,” Trump said. “So, whether you’re conservative or liberal, common sense is common sense. A lot of what I run on is common sense. He’s doing really well, I saw a poll, he’s at 22. That’s pretty good! That’s pretty good, doing very well.”

And in case you were doubting that this might be an effective strategy…

Roger Stone, a longtime GOP operative whom Trump pardoned after being convicted in 2019 of obstructing a congressional investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, remarked on a podcast in April of this year that “incumbent presidents who run for re-election but who are challenged in the primaries by a significant challenger, even though they survive, in almost every case, they are defeated.” Stone cited what happened to Jimmy Carter when Ted Kennedy challenged him for the 1980 nomination.

(Via The NYT)

Derek and Sam’s son has been kidnapped, so they’re panicked. The cops are helping, and they might have a lead, but it might show that Derek and Sam might have very good reason to be targeted.

Steven Soderbergh has continued his Mosaic partnership with writer Ed Solomon to create the six-episode series Full Circle for Max, and the trailer makes it look like a vice getting tighter as more of the story comes to light. The two pillars of the story are CCH Pounders’ “Auntie,” an important figure in the NYC Guyanese diaspora, and Claire Danes’ Sam, the mother of the kidnapped boy who comes to find her life isn’t quite what she thought it was. Naturally, Soderbergh bobs and weaves disparate-seeming stories into one.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“An investigation into a botched kidnapping uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present day New York City.”

Just about as vague as every other Soderbergh logline, hiding all the delicious nooks and crannies to be discovered by actually watching the show. Once again, Soderbergh has assembled an outstanding cast to deliver those twists and turns. Full Circle stars Zazie Beetz, Claire Danes, Jim Gaffigan, Jharrel Jerome, Timothy Olyphant, CCH Pounder, Phaldut Sharma, Adia, Sheyi Cole, Gerald Jones, Suzanne Savoy, Ethan Stoddard, Lucian Zanes, and Dennis Quaid.

Having recently played at the Tribeca Festival, Full Circle reveals all its secrets starting July 13th on Max, followed by two episodes every week until the finale on July 27th.

Piers Morgan loves to throw around the word “repulsive” when describing others (mostly his obsession, Meghan Markle), but that’s how he acted during a recent interview with OnlyFans model Elle Brooke.

“I’m just curious about you being someone who embarks on a law career, who’s obviously very bright, went to university, packed it in just for money, to be effectively an online stripper. I mean, that’s what you do, right?” Morgan asked Brooke. “I could be a good lawyer, yes,” she replied, “but also am I good at doing other things on video and camera? Yes.” Later, in response to Morgan wondering if she’s going to be “proud” when her hypothetical children ask why she’s not a lawyer, Brooke answered, “They can cry in a Ferrari.”

In an essay for The Independent, Brooke discussed her viral interview with Morgan. “When I was asked to be interviewed by Piers Morgan for TalkTV, I originally thought it was going to be a political debate. I was sh*tting myself, because I knew that he was way smarter at politics than me. I knew that I couldn’t argue with Piers, but I knew to be sarky and funny and witty was the only way that I was going to leave unscathed – which is exactly what I did. It couldn’t have gone any better,” she wrote.

Brooke continued:

The sex work industry is one where women make the majority of money, and I believe that men are jealous. For example, if a man has had sex with a large number of people, and a woman has exactly the same body count, it’s the girl who gets slut-shamed. Men can get away with a lot of things women can’t, and unfortunately, that’s just how society works.

Since the interview aired, a lot of women have reached out to Brooke (who claims to make more than $30,000 a month), “and that means so much to me. I stood up against him, I held my own, and he couldn’t make me look stupid. In fact, I made him look stupid.” And for that, I’m a fan of hers.

You can watch a clip from the interview above.

(Via The Independent)

Paul McCartney recently appeared on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, where he spoke about the length expected for massive acts now at shows — and blames Bruce Springsteen for setting this standard.

“You were on package bills,” McCartney said. “These days, pretty much there’s a main act and there might be a warm-up act. But then, it was a lot of people on the bill because nobody did long [sets]. Now people will do three, four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen. I’ve told him so. I said, ‘It’s your fault, man!’”

Springsteen’s concerts typically run for anywhere from three to four hours. Other acts, including Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour, are following his lead. For contrast, McCartney pointed out that not only can you not do an hour anymore, but The Beatles used to get paid for thirty-minute sets.

“I tried to work out, why was it so short?” he adds, giving some backstory. “Well, because there were a lot of people on the bill. I think, if you were a comedian, the promoter would say, ‘How long can you do? Four minutes?’ The guy would say yes, so they would do four, and so we thought, ‘Well, half an hour — that’s epic.’ That was it. A big Beatles show, we were on and off like that. It didn’t seem strange.”

Check out Paul McCartney’s full episode here.

Randomness begets randomness. McDonald’s should’ve known this when they decided, without warning or provocation, to make June Grimace’s birthday month and have us all join in on the celebration of its 52nd birthday with the new Grimace milkshake. Even though I like the Grimace shake, I recognize that nobody asked for it. And now McDonald’s has to deal with a trend that they never asked for — I’m talking about the Grimace Shake TikTok trend.

Where do I even begin to explain this? It’s… weird. TikTok trends are generally weird, but this one takes the shake (har har) in terms of weirdness. I don’t think TikTok has ever been this bizarre, and this is a platform that had people eating mysterious pink sauce made by a random influencer with little to no culinary experience!

The typical format is this: a person wholesomely wishes Grimace a happy birthday before taking a sip of the new shake followed by a hard cut to a scene in which a shaky camera follows a trail of purple goo to the drinker who now is splattered in purple goo. Bonus points for doing this set to ominous music.

So why is this happening, is it some sort of comment on the quality of the Grimace shake?

Not really. if you watch enough of the #Grimaceshake videos — which have collectively been viewed over 622 million times — you’ll quickly catch on that this trend is exploding in popularity right now because it’s f*cking hilarious, and it’s genuinely fascinating to see the different creative spins people put on the trend.

As far as we can tell, the first Grimace Shake video was posted by TikTok user @thefrazmaz on June 14th, who took influence from a similar video format that started around Burger King’s Spider-Verse burger. @thefrazmaz explains in a follow-up TikTok

“It’s an unnatural color, it’s unique and I saw a guy do it with the burger where he took a bite and the next scene was him in the hospital. So I was like, “okay, let’s do something similar.” Fair enough! In the last 24-hours the trend has completely snowballed as TikTok users try to one-up each other, with videos getting more and more bizarre in the process.

Here are some of our favorites, but we warned, if you have an aversion to milkshake-splattered bodies, this is going to be disturbing.

Can you believe people wanted to ban this app? If you see people around your city acting foolish with a bunch of Grimace shakes, now you know why.

Despite the fact that he’s on the hook for $5 million after his Cyber Symposium blew up in his face, Mike Lindell has a new event coming this summer that he guarantees will fill both sides of the aisle with hope. Although, the name of the event suggests otherwise.

While stopping by Steven Bannon‘s War Room podcast, Lindell touted his “Election Crime Bureau Summit” where he’ll reveal his top secret plan to save our country that no one’s been crazy enough to try. Until now.

“The plan will be revealed,” Lindell boasted. “And all this other stuff that people are talking about: ‘We gotta do this in the election. We gotta do that.’ This plan has never been done before. It’s never been even suggested before, and when you get up on August 18th, you’re gonna wake up and go, ‘This is the greatest thing ever!’ I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican, or who you are, you’re gonna have so much hope.”

Considering the event is no doubt hinged on Lindell’s refusal to back down from pushing conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, the chances of Democrats being filled with hope are probably slim to none.

Also, when it comes to facts, Lindell has notoriously come up short. His election fraud data was proven to be a just a bunch of gibberish on a hard drive, so his plan to save America should be taken with a whole lot of salt.

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

At long last, Sampha is back with new music of his own. While he’s made appearances on various hip-hop and R&B songs in recent years, notably by artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar, today (June 28), Sampha has shared “Spirit 2.0,” his first solo single in six years.

On “Spirit 2.0,” Sampha delivers his signature melancholy vocals over a trippy, harpsichord-infused track.

“Waves will catch you / Light will catch you / Love will catch you / Spirit gon’ catch you,” he sings in the song’s chorus, reassuring the listener that whatever difficulties they’re facing will pass — even if those around you don’t know what exactly to say.

“It’s about the importance of connection to both myself and others, and the beauty and harsh realities of just existing,” said Sampha of the song in a statement. “It’s about acknowledging those moments when you need help – that requires real strength. I hope people can enjoy that feeling of someone being there for you, even if that person doesn’t have the answers. Just calling someone up without overthinking… letting go and just dancing.. wanting to see past the mundanity of things and appreciating the magic of it all, from birds’ nests to spaceships.”

You can listen to “Spirit 2.0” above.

Twenty whole years ago (cry about it, fellow Millennials), School Of Rock entered our lives and delivered a version of Jack Black that seemed surprisingly safe to bring around your kids. This, from the guy who co-wrote the acoustic romance ballad “Fuck Her Gently.” Shedding that image to become the general audience box office star we now know him to be, Black was the heart of a very funny movie about kids learning their own power by learning to play music.

Back in February, Black announced that he would get the band back together. Not for a movie. Just for a friendly hangout reunion that would undoubtedly involve some jamming.

“All those kids — dig this — they were 10 years old when we made that movie and now they’re all, like, 30,” Black said at the time. “We’re gonna get together and have a 20-year anniversary. We like to jam. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the grownups from School of Rock.”

Turns out that makes a lot of sense because Black has kept in touch with a lot of the cast. Speaking with People, Miranda Cosgrove gushed about Black, saying that he’s maintained relationships with most of the kids from the cast over the years.

“I love him,” she said. “He just acts [as] the most normal, nice guy. He doesn’t seem like he thinks he’s Jack Black at all.”

She went on to say that Black is a huge reason she continued acting.

“I can honestly say one of the main reasons I love acting, and why I probably tried to keep doing it for so long, is because of what a great experience he made doing School of Rock,” Cosgrove said.

Looks like it’s time for an anniversary rewatch.

(via People)

As sports gambling has become legalized in the majority of states, sports leagues, players, and media outlets have begun enjoying the financial benefits of sportsbook sponsorships.

However, it is still against league rules for NFL players to bet on NFL games at any time, or to bet on any sports from a team facility or on a team road trip. While a fairly simple rule, it is one that not everyone has been able to follow (or, at least, was not totally aware of when they broke it). Last year, Calvin Ridley sat out the season after betting on NFL games while he was out injured with the Falcons. This summer, a new crop of players has been found to have placed bets in violation of league rules, and this week a “handful” of players will be hit with the same season-long suspension, including Colts cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Earlier this summer when the probe into Rodgers and other players was opened, the corner released a statement acknowledging his mistake and taking full responsibility for violating the league’s rules.

Gambling controversies are not something leagues take lightly, as there is a heightened concern when it comes to anything that could damage the perceived integrity of the games. To this point, none of the bets found by players have been against their own team, which is of course when throwing a game comes into play, but the NFL set its rules to ensure players aren’t having gambling apps open in team facilities because it could raise suspicion of what else they could be doing.

What players are learning rapidly is that the sportsbooks themselves have very detailed information logs about when and where bets are placed, because they too need to maintain the public’s faith that the games happening are indeed on the up and up. While there are plenty who point to the league taking sportsbooks money only to punish players for using those products as hypocrisy, the rules are fairly cut and dry and are also understandable. That these bets are flagged is an indication that the system works pretty much as intended, and players will have to quickly learn that there’s not really a way to sneakily get around it.

Travis Scott’s next album, Utopia, seems like it’s on the way. Just yesterday, billboards popped up in Los Angeles that not only seemed tied to the rapper but also teased a July 21st release date. (Whether that’s for the full project or just a first single is TBD.)

Here are some other possible hints about Scott’s Utopia album.

Fans had first suspected that Scott revealed the name of the album all the way back in 2020, when he ended a note in a social media post with the phrase, “See you in Utopia.” (The emphasis on the capital U led to this speculation.)

However, after the Astroworld Festival tragedy in 2021, Scott was pretty quiet about any new updates until recently. Last year, he hinted at Utopia again during a Nike ad campaign.

For 2023, he’s been more active in teasing it now. In mid-May, he played a special showcase where he teased a collaboration with Bad Bunny — according to a fan on social media who shared part of the song playing. It’s unclear still if this will make the album yet or not.

Around that same time, Scott gave the Houston Astros the first apparent public preview of Utopia in full, during his appearance at their stadium.

“I had to come down and play Utopia for the boys in the locker room,” he told reporter Mark Berman. “I had to get them right for the game. Finished and mastered, Mark. You know how we do, Mark. from the clubhouse to the stu.”

Here’s hoping fans can get more details on the project next month.