Month: July 2023

Over the weekend, White House staffers discovered a little present: some white powder that was later revealed to be cocaine. Soon jokes and conspiracy theories were soaring. Don Jr. weighed in, which, given his history, led to inevitable jokes. Later his dad added his two cents, and since he was coming off spending July 4 ranting and raving on his rinky-dink Twitter clone, they were particularly out there.

“Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden,” he wrote, echoing sentiments aired by his eldest son. He then predicted the “Fake News Media” would bury it, “saying that the amount found was “very small,” & it wasn’t really COCAINE, but rather common ground up Aspirin, & the story will vanish.”

He then miraculously managed to work the man overseeing two of the biggest cases against him into the story, while making another bizarre accusation: “Has Deranged Jack Smith, the crazy, Trump hating Special Prosecutor, been seen in the area of the COCAINE? He looks like a crackhead to me!”

Trump later circled back to the story, writing, “Where are the White House SECURITY TAPES, like the ones I openly and happily gave to Deranged Jack Smith, which will quickly show where the Cocaine in the White House came from??? They already know the answer, but probably don’t like it!”

The right has been making loads of Hunter Biden jokes since the cocaine discovery went public. But not everyone was amused. One Fox News anchor chastised people who were making drug jokes about a man who’s long wrestled with addiction issues. Then again, that same host also said that tipping service workers is “out of control,” so it’s a really an Even Stevens situation there.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Back in March, rumors arrived that Instagram was working on an app to rival Twitter. That app was later revealed to be their upcoming platform Threads. Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox called the app “our response to Twitter,” and said that Instagram’s account system will be used to automatically populate users’ information. At the time of this news, a release date for Threads had not been revealed yet, but with social media users growing increasingly upset with Twitter’s growing issues under Elon Musk’s leadership, many have been looking for a new platform.

What Is Threads?

Meta’s official description of the app can be found below:

Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things—or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions, and creativity with the world.

Where a post on Twitter is called a tweet, a post on Threads will be called a thread. It presents an interface that’s similar to Twitter and it can be downloaded in the Apple App Store for iPhone here. It’s expected to be available in the Google Play Store when it’s released, but there is not a listing for it at the moment.

In June, The Verge reported on a Meta meeting that officially revealed Threads. “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution,” Cox said. He added that Meta’s goals with the app are “safety, ease of use, reliability” and ensuring that creators have a “stable place to build and grow their audiences.”

When Does Threads Come Out?

Threads was originally expected to be released on July 6 at 10am EST, but that launch time was moved up to July 5th at 7pm EST. As mentioned, the app is expected to appear in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, however, it is not expected to be available in the European Union. Earlier today, Meta reportedly delayed the launch in the European Union due to the region’s privacy regulations.

Beverly Hills Cop was famously almost very different. Before Eddie Murphy nabbed the role of rules-breaking detective Alex Foley, it was briefly in the hands of Sylvester Stallone, who wanted it to be a serious action film. Years later Murphy very, very briefly came close to changing another iconic movie.

As per IndieWire, a recent episode of the podcast 50 MPH, which documents the making of the 1994 blockbuster Speed, had as a guest Don Granger, a former exec at Paramount. The picture was ultimately produced at 20th Century Fox, but before it was, Granger was eager to get it made at Paramount.

“I really wanted to try to mount the movie, and my last-ditch effort was … I pitched it at our chairman’s lunch as a possible script for Beverly Hills Cop III,” Granger revealed. “I got about 15 minutes of traction before it was dismissed, because that was back when the mandate was to find a Beverly Hill Cop III. So I was like, ‘Let’s put Axel Foley on the bus.’ It was a Hail Mary, man.”

Granger added, “I might maintain it was a better movie, it would have been a better movie than ultimately what we got for Beverly Hills Cop III, but that was my final Hail Mary.”

One could say the right thing happened: Speed wound up at a different studio with Keanu Reeves as the hero and Sandra Bullock delivering a starmaking turn as the funny woman who takes control of the rigged bus after the driver is non-fatally shot. But what if it was Axel Rose who was the funny one and he’s trapped on a bus that can’t go below 50 miles per hour or it will explode? Would Connor Roy still be aboard?

Then again, as Granger noted, the world also got a not very well-received third Beverly Hills Cop that wasn’t even rated R. But at least it featured no less than George Lucas. May the in-the-works fourth get things back on track.

(Via IndieWire)

Cardi B has been enjoying Paris Fashion Week alongside her husband Offset, and while getting into her ride, she stopped to praise some French paparazzi who were shooting her photo. “I love France,” she called, before launching into an explanation of the difference between photographers in France and those back home in the US.

“You guys are the best,” she told them. “I really love the paparazzi out here because let me tell you about the f*ckin’ American paparazzi… When you guys put [up] pictures of celebrities, you guys make sure that they look nice. You guys make sure that they take good pictures. I don’t know why American paparazzi, they will really post a picture of you looking like this. [Makes a face]. That’s f*cked up. Y’all want pictures of celebrities looking bad so people can make fun of them, shred them, put their confidence down… that’s mean. Y’all gonna get paid the same. The French paparazzi don’t do that.”

Cardi certainly has plenty of experience with folks looking to tear her down. Despite winning her defamation lawsuit against gossip blogger Tasha K, she also recently had to check the YouTuber for continuing to make nasty insinuations about her.

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

Max’s And Just Like That… has already unfurled three episodes for the Sex And The City-loving audience. Those episodes have included vaginal suppository jokes and plenty of Che Diaz, and for all the talk about Kim Cattrall’s cameo on the way, we haven’t seen Samantha Jones yet. Nor has John Corbett materialized again as Aidan Shaw, which I still cannot believe is going to happen, but yes, people (including Evan Handler) seemed surprised about Sam, so there’s a lot of anticipation there.

Naturally, the surprise partially stems from Cattrall holding out for so long on a return — due to that undeniable feud which has been called “painful” by Sarah Jessica Parker — and now, Cynthia Nixon is fretting over whether people might expect too much from Cattrall’s onscreen appearance. Nixon recently spoke with The Sunday Times and admitted that the production was “very disappointed that the secret leaked” about Cattrall’s cameo because that ruins the surprise element. Also, Nixon wonders if the leak will cause people to think that the cameo was overhyped:

“We so hoped it was something people wouldn’t know about until they saw the episode and that it would be a fun surprise as they were watching. I worry that with all the build-up people are going to wonder what all the fuss was about. It’s important to know that it is a very brief, very small cameo.”

Only time will tell, but Cattrall is having no problem discussing the issue now that it’s out of the bag. She recently told The View that she agreed to the appearance on the condition that designer Patricia Field would return to dress Samantha Jones. Hopefully, people will end up enjoying the results.

Or maybe I shall dream of a reshoot where Sam and Aidan are out having drinks together, and then their cameos get complicated. C’mon, I need some AJLT drama beyond Che Diaz, y’all.

(Via The Sunday Times)

Governor Ron DeSantis is also in search of a personality, one that might appeal to the MAGA expats he seems to be courting in his run-up to the 2024 presidential election. But his efforts to mold himself into the kind of guy bigoted transphobes might want to have a beer with have failed so spectacularly as of late that now, even top GOP strategists are urging him to press pause on future meet and greets.

DeSantis has been struggling in the polls recently, trailing behind twice-impeached, heavily indicted Donald Trump by huge margins. Some of that lost ground is being attributed to the Florida Republican’s, um, lukewarm people skills. He’s tried to stand on street corners in San Francisco gagging at the homeless, sweat it out with the normies in Oklahoma, and have pizza with Fox News interviewers, but even the most benign PR ops end up painting DeSantis in a bad light. Why? According to political analyst Tara Newsom, it’s because he transforms into a short-circuiting robot anytime he’s in public.

“It looks like voters are starting to really get to know him, and the more they get to know him, his narrative is a lot different than the man,” Newsom told WFLA’s Mahsa Saeidi. “Gov. DeSantis cannot get within striking reach of Donald Trump, and every time he makes a campaign stop, voters seem to step back.”

She suggested DeSantis step back from his campaign trail and send his more genial wife to public events in his place.

“She said that the governor should be pulled off the campaign trail,” Saeidi said. “That’s really not his strong suit. Instead, she says that the campaign should send surrogates, perhaps the first lady, to those early primary states.”

No offense to Casey DeSantis, but we can’t imagine any amount of schmoozing would erase the memory of watching her husband cackle like a hyena while denying he eats pudding with his fingers.

(Via RawStory)

It must stink to be hated by your hometown paper. Just ask Josh Hawley. The MAGA senator went to school in Kansas City, Missouri. Decades later, the local paper, The Kansas City Star, repeatedly pounced on him for his misdeeds. When he played a role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot, they slammed him in an op-ed. When footage emerged of him fleeing the Capital as it was overrun with Trump supporters, they did the same thing. And when he shared a fake Patrick Henry quote? You better believe they did it yet again.

On July 4, Hawley rang in the holiday by claiming the Founding Father once said this: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Henry never said that. Worse, the fake quote first appeared in a virulently anti-Semitic white nationalist magazine from 1956.

The mistake earned Hawley the expected social media mockery. And, as per Raw Story, it also netted him another torching from The Kansas City Star.

“The senator could have celebrated that accomplishment with millions of other Americans, including many of his own constituents,” wrote the paper’s editorial board. “Instead, he had to make it about his thing — a chance to own the libs.”

The board said Hawley was “less interested in truly celebrating freedom — the ostensible reason we celebrate Juneteenth and Independence Day in the first case — and instead wanted to make a spectacle of himself with right-wing tweets he knew would attract attention.” They then accused him of “peacocking.”

The Star accused Hawley of being a politician who “craves attention” to the point that he’ll happily accept “bad attention,” too. Perhaps, they argued, Hawley thinks even “bad attention” will “bring him the power he craves.”

In the piece, the board also included one of Hawley’s online critics, historian Seth Cotlar of Willamette University, who informed him that Google is his friend.

“If you type in a quote from a Founding Father you’re thinking of tweeting out, in a matter of seconds, you can quite easily discover if it’s for real or not,” Cotlar said.

If the writers at The Kansas City Star are correct, then Hawley must be thrilled that he’s once again been dragged by his hometown paper.

(Via Raw Story & Kansas City Star)

In May, Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a lawsuit against Diageo PLC, his partner in the vodka brand Ciroc and tequila brand DeLeon, accusing Diageo of racial discrimination. In classifying the brands as “urban” brands, the lawsuit alleges “Ciroc and DeLeon have been starved of resources,” including “production, distribution, and sales.” Now, a new court ruling has unredacted several portions of the lawsuit, revealing that Combs also accused Diageo of developing a watermelon-flavored tequila against his wishes — even after being informed of the racist associations that could be attached to such a move.

In the original lawsuit, Combs said Diageo had not invested in Ciroc and DeLeon, and said that a president at the company, Stephen Rust, told him “race was part of the reason Diageo limited the neighborhoods where the Combs brands were distributed.” Diageo denied the allegations and ended its partnership with Combs in late June. But New York State Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen recently ruled that Diageo could not keep the entirety of the lawsuit secret.

According to Rolling Stone, which obtained the unredacted lawsuit, Combs was not only asked to downplay his connection with Ciroc, “with the goal of rolling back its ‘image of being an African-American brand,” Combs claims that the company specifically refused to take his advice regarding the potentially prickly nature of the perception of a Black-owned tequila company selling a watermelon-flavored tequila.

“Diageo showed up in person to Mr. Combs and his team with a developed watermelon-flavored DeLeon Tequila,” the lawsuit reads. “They did this despite DeLeon not having flavored tequila, Mr. Combs’ consistent objection to adding flavors, and the efforts to educate Diageo about the racial history and connotations relating to watermelon.” However, a Diageo spokesperson told Rolling Stone, “Mr. Combs supported, publicly endorsed for several years, and benefited financially from the success of Ciroc Summer Watermelon. His attempt to recast follow up discussions regarding innovations for DeLeon is, as is his entire suit, disingenuous and self-serving.”

Diddy’s not the only rap mogul to have trouble with his alcohol brands; 50 Cent recently settled in Rémy Martin’s suit against him, while Jay-Z sold a significant stake in his D’usse brand after a heated lawsuit with Bacardi.

The last few years have brought increasing focus on the plight of delivery workers. Companies like Uber and Seamless have come under fire for inadequately paying their hard-working employees (and for gouging restaurants, too). But they’re not the only ones who are part of the problem. Customers who under-tip are at fault, too. A TikTok of a Doordash delivery guy calling out wealthy patrons for only slipping him a fiver recently went viral. And of course Fox News didn’t take the side of the worker.

As per Mediaite, during a panel discussion Wednesday, Kayleigh “Milktoast” McEnany angrily brought up the video, chastising the worker for not being happy with only a 25% tip and gloating that he was subsequently fired. McEnany’s fellow panelists agreed that the guy was out of line and that tipping 25% is acceptable. But one of them then went even further.

“It’s unbelievable,” crowed co-host Gerri Willis. “Everybody wants a tip for everything that they do. They ring up an order. They bring, you know, service. They still want a tip. I think people are taken aback by this. And, you know, do we have to pay all of this? I actually think they’re going to be coming for the money in our 401k.”

Co-host Cheryl Casone agreed, saying, “Tipping has gotten out of control in this in this country. And I think people are getting actually a little fed up with it.”

Casone claimed that there’s “now a lot of pushback about that tip jar because it’s everywhere that you do business.” Still, she at least agreed that tipping at heart is good. “And tipping is a way to say thank you. And 20%, that’s a good standard, I think, for everybody. But look, if you want to give more, give more. But you should do it for service because that person does a great job and a lot of them are very hard working.”

At another point during the same show, Casone did a rare thing on Fox News: She defended Hunter Biden after conservatives made jokes about him in connection with the cocaine discovered in the White House. “He is a recovering addict,” she said. “Nobody wants to see him regress or slip back into addiction. And I think the comments were tasteless.”

That’s nice, though Casone’s niceness is a bit undercut by her also saying that tipping hard-working employees is “out of control.”

(Via Mediaite)

Coffee is one of those random adult things that connects everyone who has ever worked in a setting with multiple people. Whether it’s an office, a school or even a warehouse, it doesn’t matter; if you have to be there with other people, you can expect coffee to be made by someone, even if you don’t personally drink it. For this reason alone, most people know the sounds and smells a coffee maker creates.

And if you’ve been around for the past decade or more, then you know the sound a Keurig coffee machine makes, because if there’s one thing Americans love, it’s ease. A teacher on TikTok has clearly heard the sounds of a Keurig machine one too many times, because he’s mastered the sound.

Devon Bowker, a high school biology teacher, uploaded a video to his TikTok page, @devonthenatureguy, of him doing an insanely realistic impression of a Keurig brewing a cup of coffee.

Bowker is sitting in his car while filming the impressive video. He doesn’t say much, just a quick, “This is my impression of a Keurig coffee maker,” before jumping right to the familiar sounds. The video has over 3.7 million views and the comments prove the biology teacher has a marketable skill if there’s a spot for coffee maker impressions on a resume.

“You transported me. It was early. I could smell the coffee. Bravo,” one commenter wrote.

“Idk what’s more impressive, the accuracy or the fact that you did that for so long while maintaining a straight face,” someone said.

“Little know fact. Keurigs don’t make sound. They have a small chip located under the base plate with a speaker which plays Devon’s noises when brew,” another commenter joked.

If you close your eyes and hold a mug in your hands, you can almost smell the coffee brewing. Not that I’ve personally tried that or anything…that would be weird. But go grab your mug and listen to the sweet sounds below. Just make sure you have actual coffee at home because it may just make you want a cup.

@devonthenatureguy

How’d I do? @Keurig #keurig #coffee #impression #americasgottalent #thrivingtalent