Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Dad urges parents to stop worrying about giving their kids a ‘good future’

A major part of parenting is setting kids up for as best an adult life as possible. It’s also a major source of every parent’s stress, as this is essentially a question without absolute answers.

Sure, there are many helpful strategies that can be implemented—setting up a college fund, enrolling into a great school, finding enriching activities—but even these cannot guarantee anything when the future is unwritten and the world continues changing at a rapid pace. Any jobless millennial still struggling to pay student loans for a prestigious university degree can tell you about that.

With all these unknown variables that could wreak havoc on even the best laid plan, what is a parent to do? Popular content creator and fellow dad Abraham Piper argues that maybe parents shouldn’t even make it a goal to provide a good future in the first place.

After all, it’s “impossible anyway,” he says in the now-viral clip.


“The future is uncertain. So, is it the best use of our parental energy, our love, to continue trying to achieve the impossible? Isn’t there something instead where the success could happen right now instead of 30 years down the road, if at all?” Piper continued.

With this compelling logic, the goal should instead be on giving kids a “good past”, according to Piper. In other words, just focusing on providing a happy childhood every day. “Trips to the park, hugs before bed, letting them choose the music in the car,” etc. This kind of goal is not only achievable, it’s incredibly impactful.

Referencing Allison Gopnik’s book “The Philosophical Baby,” Piper added that one of the few aspects of a child’s adult life parents actually do get to determine is the quality of childhood that they bring into it. And considering that a huge part of one’s identity is based on core memories, a truly happy childhood is an “ ineradicable gift.”

Judging from the comments of other parents, Piper’s advice struck a chord.

“As a parent who is working so hard to break the generational trauma cycle; my heart needed to hear this today,” one person wrote.

“I feel that their future is not for me to control or project, it’s their foundation that’s my responsibility. For them to be secure and confident,” added another.

@moreabrahampiper Don’t worry about giving your kids a good future. ❤️ #parenting #lifeadvice #alisongopnik #dadsoftiktok #parentingadvice #liveinthemoment ♬ original sound – Abraham Piper

The lingering effects that childhood trauma can have in adulthood are well documented— heightened anxiety, addiction, depression, difficulty in relationships, insomnia…the list goes on. And we have learned over time that trauma exists in a spectrum. It can manifest in many ways, not just physical abuse. Neglect, verbal bullying and parental separation play their parts as well.

On the bright side, research indicates that happy core memories have the same lasting effect. Studies show that even with the presence of early adversity, creating positive childhood experiences can still provide a foundation for creating better family health in adulthood.

While parents of course want to do whatever they can to help kids become successful, happy and healthy for the rest of their lives, perhaps constantly moving the goal posts isn’t in anyone’s best interests. At the end of the day, it might prove more fruitful (and more fulfilling) to focus one what is within one’s power now, rather than later.

As Piper noted: “The present, we can almost control. Or at least feel like it. And that feeling is all we’re dealing with here because we get to see our effort work right now and not just hope that they will.”

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Why did the Titan submarine implode, but the Titanic made it to the ocean floor intact?

The violent implosion of the Titan submersible on the way to visit the Titanic captured people’s attention across the globe. It brought up a lot of conversations about social class, the vehicle’s questionable construction and the haunting history of death surrounding the Titanic itself.

For those of us who don’t work in oceanography or physics, it also brought up a lot of questions about underwater implosion. A big one circulating among conspiracy theorists and confused laypeople alike: Why did the Titan implode while the Titanic didn’t?

The Titan submersible is understood to have disintegrated in milliseconds somewhere neat a depth of 11,500 feet. In comparison, we can still see most of the wreckage of the Titanic 12,500 feet down on the ocean floor.


A lot of people are asking the question on Twitter.

First, what is an implosion versus an explosion? “In an explosion, the force acts outwards, but in an implosion, the force acts inwards,” Arun Bansil, professor of physics at Northeastern University, said. “When a submersible is deep in the ocean, it experiences the force on its surface due to water pressure. When this force becomes larger than the force hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently.”

Blair Thornton, a professor at the University of Southampton, told NBC that the force of the implosion was up to 10,000 tons of physical force, the equivalent of the weight of the Eiffel Tower.

So, if the Titanic also traveled through the same depths en route to the bottom of the ocean, why didn’t it suffer a similar fate?

In some ways, it’s quite simple: There was a difference in pressure between the enclosed submarine and the Titanic, which had doors and windows so that water could easily travel through it, equalizing the pressure on the inside and the outside.

However, researchers believe there may have been two implosions on the Titanic’s journey to the bottom of the ocean. Research published by Dave Gleicher posits that parts of the stern and the poop deck imploded as the ship sank. But most of the boat was water permeable, so the wreckage was recognizable when it was first discovered in 1985.

Although no one is sure why the Titan submersible, created by OceanGate Expeditions, succumbed to the pressures of the ocean depths, many experts are pointing to its carbon fiber hull as the culprit. Carbon fiber is a relatively new material, especially for submarines, that hasn’t been adequately tested in extreme depths. Some speculate that the Titan’s hull could have been compromised due to its 2 dozen previous dives. Like a balloon, all it takes is one hole at extreme depths for the entire vessel to collapse.

“It was very clear that these people were operating a submersible that was unsafe,” Katy Croff Bell, president and founder of the Ocean Discovery League, told NBC News.

“They knew it. They had been warned on multiple occasions,” she added. “And I think that we can only hope that we ensure in the future that something like this does not happen, and people take this very, very seriously.”

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Tense video shows a woman filming herself after sensing a man following her. She was right.

It’s no secret that even the most seemingly safe of public places can instantly turn dangerous for a woman. Is it fair? No. But is it common? Absolutely, to the point where more and more women are documenting moments of being stalked or harassed as a grim reminder to be aware of one’s surroundings.

Lacie (@lacie_kraatz) is one of those women. On April 11th, she was out on a run when she noticed a man in front of her displaying suspicious behavior. Things got especially dicey when the man somehow got behind her. That’s when she pulled out her phone and started filming—partially to prove that it wasn’t just her imagination, and also out of fear for her safety.

“Hello. I’m just making this video so that women are a little more aware of them,” she begins in the video. “See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”


According to Lacie, the two were initially running in opposite directions. But at some point after seeing her, the man stopped in the middle of the trail and waited for her to pass so that he could follow her path from behind.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking—‘Why are you suspecting that he’s following you?’” Lacie continues. “Well, let me tell you. I was just walking like this, and I look up, and he’s in front of me, and he just keeps doing a ‘peek’ like this behind him, over and over again.”

Lacie added that at one point, she even made an illegal crossing when “do not walk” sign was still up in an attempt to put some distance between herself and the man. After looking over her shoulder, she noticed that the man was visibly “speeding” to keep up.

In case there is still any doubt, Lacie then begins to run to see if the man will follow suit. Sure enough, he does.

Luckily the man eventually seems to give up, though he still seems to be watching her from a distance. Lacie ends up safe back home, but she didn’t even accomplish what she set out to do that afternoon.

“I couldn’t even finish my run,” she concludes. “I only ran like a mile and a half. I wanted to do 3 miles, but no—creepy men just had to be creepy f****** men today.”

Watch:

@lacie_kraatz #foryou #ladies #awareness ♬ original sound – Lacie

Countless women empathized with Lacie in the comments section. Clearly, this was not a unique circumstance.

“What I do when I’m being followed is act feral,” yet another person shared. “Like I’ll bark and growl really loud and flail my arms around. If you look crazy, you’re doin’ it right.”

Another added, “Man, nothing pisses me off more than men who make me feel uncomfortable doing things that I NEED to do for my health and well-being.”

Others tried to give their own tips for handling the situation, from finding nearby police or fire stations to using a variety of running trails to simply notifying the first visible passerby of what’s happening and asking to stand with them.

And of course, the resounding advice was to use the public space, and modern-day technology, to one’s advantage.

As one person wrote, “Girls we have got to normalize turning around and yelling at people following us. Let them know you know, take pictures of them, scream, make a scene.”

It’d be nice if these kinds of unsettling interactions didn’t exist. But here we are. At the very least, it’s good that women are speaking up more so that these situations are easier to spot early on and women can know how to navigate them in the safest way possible.

This article originally appeared on 4.4.23

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Meghan Markle Is Not A Great Talent Of ‘Any Kind,’ Says A Key Hollywood Player After Her And Harry’s Spotify Split

There’s been a fair amount of dog-piling on Meghan Markle lately, and not only from the usual Royal Family obsessees (or Piers Morgan). She and her husband Prince Harry recently parted way with Spotify, where she did the podcast Archetypes, and though the split was initially presented as amicable, Bill Simmons, who runs the streamer’s podcast department, let loose that he thought they were “f*cking grifters.” That may have opened Pandora’s box, because now others are trashing the semi-ex-Royals as well.

As per The Daily Beast, Jeremy Zimmer, CEO of United Talent Agency, unloaded on Markle specifically while speaking to Semafor.

“Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent,” Zimmer told them. “And, you know, just because you’re famous doesn’t make you great at something.”

It’s not clear if Zimmer had any direct run-ins with Harry and Meghan or if he’s just opining based on what he’s heard and/or read about them. But Zimmer and Simmons aren’t the only with unflattering things to say about the pair. Last week Markle was accused of faking the interviews in some of her podcasts.

What’s more, over the weekend, a Netflix source alleged that the streamer’s brass had been pressuring them to create more good content as part of their mammoth deal. So far they’ve only done one, the doc series Harry & Meghan, with another en route.

(Via Semafor and The Daily Beast)

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

The #1 Best Whiskey On The Planet, According To The 2023 ‘Oscars Of Alcohol’

Great Scotch whisky is a revelation. It’s also fleeting. There’s a price barrier for entry — as most of the really good stuff is over $100 in the U.S. — and it’s not always widely available. Sometimes you have to know a good whiskey store or a great whiskey bar to get your hands on the best stuff. That’s certainly going to be the case with the world’s best whiskey, according to the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

This year’s crown was bestowed on a Tomatin Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky 36 Years Old, a very rare whiskey. That means that the pour survived three double-blind taste tests where it was unanimously awarded all golds to achieve “Double Gold” status by the first round of judges. Then it was voted the best overall Scotch whisky in another double-blind taste test. And then it was voted best whiskey period in yet another double-blind taste test.

I was part of all of those tastings as a judge in San Francisco this year. I also had the pleasure of trying this bottle again over the weekend at the gala where the top awards were announced and presented. Point being, I know this whisky very well by now. Because of that, I’m breaking down the whole thing with my tasting notes below. This isn’t a cheap bottle of booze and you really want to be sure before you commit. Let me help you there with my personal take on the world’s best whiskey of 2023. Let’s dive in!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months

Tomatin Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky 36 Years Old

Tomatin 36
Takara Shuzo Corp.

ABV: 45.1 %

Average Price: $1,535

The Whisky:

This is 100% malted barley malt whisky that spends a lot of time in the warehouse. The whisky in the bottle is a blend of a minimum of 36-year-old barrels — both ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks. Those barrels are vatted and allowed to rest before the whisky went in the bottle with a touch of water.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: There’s a deep sense of apple and cherry trees in full bloom on the nose with a hint of mango skins, white peaches, and mulled wine spices that leads toward dark plum jam over buttery scones with a hint of brandy butter lurking in the background.

Palate: The palate is immediately lush and silken with a sense of pear pudding and mincemeat pies next to fire-roasted almonds, dried apples, and raw honeycomb with a light lavender vibe.

Finish: The spices rear their head on the finish with a mild eggnog and spiced Christmas nutcake feel that leads to figs and prunes with a hint of pear pie and soft vanilla rounding out the end.

Bottom Line:

This is simply delicious malt. It’s so deep and enticing while delivering an absolutely quintessential unpeated single malt experience.

Adding a little water really brings out the creaminess of the vanilla and fruits with a soft brioche and creamy vanilla underbelly. There are also more savory herbs and spiced florals present as the pour continues to bloom in the glass. It’s a wonderful slow-sipping whisky that’s worth taking some serious time with.

Where To Find It:

High-end liquor stores and whiskey bars will have this. There’ll be a rush on bottles now because of this award — best whiskey in the world is not easily ignored. But you should be able to snag a bottle at a really good liquor store for a few more minutes. But don’t wait, it’ll be gone soon enough.

This is also a bottle that’ll be easier to get in the U.K. and prime markets in Europe. So maybe look out for it if you’re traveling that way this summer.

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

I did a roundtable with the Vice President about abortion. Here are 4 things that surprised me.

It’s been a very weird week.

I’m a writer and editor—not a medical professional, legal expert or political activist in any way—so imagine my surprise when I got a message from Vice President Kamala Harris’s senior advisor inviting me to join a roundtable discussion on MSNBC for the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. I thought someone might be pranking me, but nope. The invite was real.

Apparently, someone had read an op-ed I’d written years ago about how it’s possible to be morally pro-life but politically pro-choice and felt that my voice would add something to the discussion. The panelists included the lead plaintiffs in the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the Texas Abortion Ban lawsuits, two activists involved in the fight for reproductive rights, a Texas OB-GYN who has seen the implications of the Dobbs decision in his own practice…and me.

I felt remarkably average among these experts on the issue, but I think that was the point. My view represents millions of average American voters who may feel conflicted about where they stand on abortion morally and legally and are trying to reconcile their personal or religious beliefs with what they think our laws should be. Additionally, as someone with no political affiliation or loyalty to any party, I could speak about grappling with this issue without any partisan pressure or influence.


I’d like to point out that I’m wary of most politicians and well aware of biases in the media, so despite feeling honored to be asked, I was a bit hesitant to participate. I certainly didn’t want to contribute to the partisan divide if I could help it. But because abortion is such a complex and nuanced issue, dedicating an entire hour of prime time to a discussion about it sounded like a good way to help people gain a better, broader understanding. So less than 24 hours after being asked, I was on a plane to Dallas to join the roundtable, which filmed the next day.

The full roundtable discussion is worth watching (and can be found on Peacock, with clips available on MSNBC), but I wanted to pull back the curtain and offer a peek behind the scenes because there were some things about the experience that genuinely surprised me.

1. I had no idea ahead of time what questions they were going to ask

I assumed participants in these kinds of events would be prepped ahead of time with what questions they would be asking and have ample time to prepare. This was not the case for me, and according to the fellow panelists I chatted with, it wasn’t for them, either. I used my travel time to prepare a few talking points I felt I could address somewhat intelligently based on my op-ed (since that’s what prompted the invite), but all I knew before arriving for the taping was that we were going to be discussing the Dobbs decision.

The only preparation we got was about 30 seconds before each segment was filmed. Joy Reid briefly explained how that segment would be structured with something like, “Okay, in this segment, we’re going to talk about [some element of the abortion issue]. I’m going to ask [panelist] about [XYZ] and then pivot to [panelist] to talk about [XYZ]. But feel free to chime in if you want to respond to something. We really want this to be a conversation.”

That was it. The entire prep. I was surprised—but also delighted—by how unscripted it was. No one asked me to make any specific points. I didn’t feel any expectation or pressure to even agree with what was being said. Obviously, they knew where I stood based on what I’d written, but they had no idea what I was actually going to say ahead of time.

2. The conversations on-screen were no different than the ones being had off-screen by all parties involved

I think people who are skeptical of media may think that things said for the camera aren’t as genuine as one would hope. Maybe that’s the case sometimes, but that wasn’t my experience at all here. In the green room and during the commercial breaks while filming, the conversation about the issue continued just as it did on screen, just without a host guiding it. The genuine sincerity of the discussion filled me with hope.

For instance, the OB-GYN panelist I was chatting with in the green room told me that in his 30 years of practice, he’d never had a patient come to the decision to terminate a pregnancy lightly, and we talked about the importance of keeping compassion and empathy central to the conversation about abortion. That was just our casual conversation. In the hours I was there, I overheard people from the crew to the other panelists to Joy Reid and the VP talking behind the scenes about all the things we talked about on screen. There was nothing contrived or fake about what you see in the roundtable discussion.

3. There was no atmosphere of eliteness

Despite the presence of Secret Service agents everywhere and despite being a high-profile cable news show involving the Vice President, the whole thing after going through the metal detectors felt mostly…normal.

All the people I interacted with, from the folks arranging my travel to the people headlining the show, were so down-to-earth. Everyone was genuinely nice and repeatedly expressed their gratitude to all of us for being there. I kept thinking, “Wait, aren’t I the one who’s supposed to feel grateful for this opportunity?” I didn’t expect to feel so at ease. There was an air of professionalism, of course, but not at all a stuffy or high-pressured one.

I mean, I chatted with Joy Reid about her hot flashes while we were waiting for Kamala Harris to arrive, for goodness sake. It was obviously a serious and highly organized event with lots of moving parts, but it also felt casual and relaxed, which made it easy not to feel too nervous.

4. I came home to an immediate example of why this issue is so important

The night after I came home from Dallas, I had friends over for dinner. One of them works with pregnant women and told me about a mom who was in her second trimester and very ill. Her bloodwork looked horrible and her health was going downhill fast. It turned out she had a very rare fetal anomaly that was creating her health problem, and she needed to terminate the pregnancy or risk a dire outcome. The anomaly meant there ultimately wasn’t going to be a way to save the fetus.

Her previous OB-GYN who had delivered her other children was in Idaho, and though he wanted to help her, he couldn’t, because what she needed was an abortion. She wasn’t at death’s door yet (though technically could crash at any time), so despite the obvious need to end the pregnancy, his hands were tied by Idaho abortion laws. She then had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get to a provider in Washington who could help her, all while her health continued to be in danger.

There are countless stories like this that illustrate the very real implications of the Dobbs decision on real people, including people who don’t actually want an abortion but need one. There’s a tendency to try to make this issue black-and-white, but it’s not. There are unique circumstances surrounding every pregnancy and every childbirth, and real women are harmed when lawmakers insert themselves into healthcare decisions with no medical expertise or training.

It’s vital that we keep the moral debates separate from the legal debates on this issue. Pregnancy is a healthcare issue, deserving of medical privacy. No lawmaker needs to be in the room when a woman and a doctor are making decisions about her healthcare. People can debate the morality of those decisions all day long, but keep the law out of it.

I wasn’t necessarily surprised, but I was happy to see first-hand how, at the highest levels of this unfortunately politically-charged issue, the concern behind the debate isn’t about politics, but about the real people negatively impacted by the court’s decision.

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Sexyy Red Wasn’t Booked For The BET Awards, So She Put On Her Own Impromptu Performance In The Audience

The 2023 BET Awards highlighted a number of rap’s new it-girls, from Doechii and GloRilla to Ice Spice and Latto, but there was one who missed the cutoff to receive recognition. That didn’t stop her from creating her own opportunity, though.

Sexyy Red, who blew up late last year with her raunchy singles “Born By The River” and “Pound Town,” wasn’t booked to perform at the BET Awards, so she gave her own impromptu performance of the latter in the crowd when it played over the PA. The fans in her section seemed pretty amped up to see her stand up and begin rapping along, encouraging her with calls of “Aye!” One woman even stood up with Red and started twerking on her. Check it out below.

The BET Awards were plenty eventful outside of the performances as well. While the focus of the evening was rightly on the celebration of 50 years of hip-hop and a lifetime achievement award for Busta Rhymes, there were enough extracurriculars to keep fans buzzing even after the show ended. JT and Lil Uzi Vert got into some kind of altercation, leading to JT throwing her phone at Uzi. Meanwhile, Latto was so psyched at winning Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, she ran onto the stage missing a shoe.

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Netflix Will Soon Begin Streaming ‘Titanic’ Again, Which Is Awkward And Also Upsetting To Some Viewers

The five Titanic tourists on the OceanGate submersible included a 19-year-old young man who was “terrified” and didn’t want to go on the voyage. The vessel disappeared on Father’s Day, and then three days later (on June 21), Netflix widely released their July listings of new original programming and additions to the streaming library.

At that time, no one yet knew (other than James Cameron and associates) that the submarine’s passengers and OceanGate CEO had perished in a catastrophic implosion. That news arrived on Friday, and now, people are taking notice of James Cameron’s Titanic returning to Netflix on July 1. The timing either couldn’t be worse or better, depending upon one’s perspective (Celine Dion’s movie theme song saw a boost amid the tragedy’s development), although Netflix has apparently stayed quiet on the matter.

This all appears to be sheer coincidence, and notably, the July listings also contain a July 19 release date for a deep-diving documentary called The Deepest Breath. Netflix also released a trailer (days after the OceanGate disappearance), which begins with this narration: “Free diving is one of the world’s deadliest extreme sports.”

As one can imagine (and as The Hollywood Reporter points out), not everyone is thrilled even though THR notes that one outlet had already been tipped about the Titanic return to Netflix. Let’s just say that feelings were mixed, and one user believes that “[t]he timing is so wrong” while others point out that Titanic is already streaming on Amazon Prime and Paramount+.

Additionally, some Twitter users are falsely claiming that Netflix already began streaming a documentary geared specifically toward the OceanGate implosion, but that’s not a correct statement. One doc has surfaced already, yet it hailed from Channel 5 in the UK and began streaming Thursday, which is the day that the implosion confirmation surfaced and passengers were confirmed dead by the Coast Guard. Overall, it’s not the best timing on any of these fronts, but some of this programming was already planned and presumably ready to roll before the submersible went missing.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Walton Goggins And ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Turned A 1978 Gospel Song Into The Show’s Best Musical Moment Since ‘Misbehavin’

The Righteous Gemstones once again unleashed its secret weapon: Letting Walton Goggins cut loose with an earworm of a country gospel song. Granted, it’s hard to top the magic of “Misbehavin” from Season 1, but Goggins returned in Season 3 with an extremely Gemstones-esque performance of “There Will Come a Payday” that gives his prior hit a run for its money, presumably with a pickle in its mouth.

While standing in front of a pool at the Gemstones new resort, Zion’s Landing, a clamshell-clad Goggins belts out the tune in a surreal music video that gives off weird Elvis vibes while also taking the audiences through a journey of how Baby Billy sees himself after all of his trials and tribulations.

As for what it’s like getting Goggins to tackle a musical number, you couldn’t ask for a better collaborator, according to The Righteous Gemstones composer Joseph Stevens.

Via IndieWire:

“We had him do a variety of takes. One that was maybe a little more reserved, one that kind of went for it a little more. What we ended up going with was the middle of that road,” Stephens said. “But Walton is a consummate professional with all this stuff. All the vocal demands that we put on him for the show, he always comes very prepared, and he’s at the ready to do it however we propose. He came in and knocked it out. It’s all great and we don’t really need much after we get a few.”

In a recent interview with Uproxx, Goggins also opened up about Billy Baby’s “Elvis” moment, and how it all came down to costume designer Christina Flannery. “She stepped right in and the day that we were filming that episode they brought this clamshell out and I put it on, it went to places that I had no idea it was going to go.”

“Danny (McBride) directed that episode,” Goggins revealed. “And he had ideas for this and turned it into a quasi-music video and the way that Baby Billy sees himself, it’s like a psychological montage, if you will. I just thought it was brilliant, man. I had no idea that it was going to go that way.”

The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 airs Sunday nights on HBO.

(Via IndieWire)

Categories
News Trending Viral Worldwide

Donald Trump Is So Mad Because Fox News Hasn’t Mentioned That Republicans In A Single County In Michigan Named Him ‘Man Of The Decade’

Donald Trump is continuing to throw a tantrum over the possibility that he might have to debate his fellow GOP presidential candidates, and his latest rant takes aim at, who else, Fox News. Why is The Donald so angry at his former favorite news program this time, you might ask? It’s because Rupert Murdoch’s cronies refused to air live footage of Trump receiving a very prestigious award from a very prestigious institution.

We kid. In actuality, Trump was bestowed with the Oakland County Republican Party’s “Man of the Decade” award Sunday night — an honor that means absolutely nothing considering the group was using Trump’s keynote speech to charge up to $7,500 for tickets to their event. But if there’s one thing this deflated basketball with baby doll hands loves, it’s the chance to add even more fake titles to his long list of made-up accolades. That Fox News had the gall to deem the event not newsworthy was always going to be an insult that led Trump to overreact on social media.

After claiming his “great trade policies” were the real reason Oakland County Republicans invited him to something called the Lincoln Day Dinner, Trump unleashed on the network, claiming the staged debates were simply another way the mainstream media wanted to capitalize on his name for better ratings. He called out his biggest Republican rival, Governor Ron DeSantis, claiming he was ahead in the polls by 40 points after taking shots at the network itself, highlighting their recent drop in viewership that likely has more to do with Tucker Carlson’s departure than any negative press surrounding Trump.

Will the former president actually skip the debate stage ahead of the Republican primaries? Probably not, but we’re having a great time watching him pitch a fit while being dragged to the podium.