Month: July 2023

Donald Trump was once crushing it in the polls, but not so much anymore. He’s not as strong as he was the first time he ran for president. Back then he was still a fresh face on the campaign trail. He was slightly younger, he slurred his words less, and he didn’t have to worry about scores of legal woes. On Saturday he found himself in Pickens, South Carolina, which has a population of about 3,000. Why did he choose such a small town? There may be a reason for that.

As per Raw Story, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin went on MSNBC, where she argued that the former president and his team know he can no longer command the big crowds he once did.

“The fact that he has to go to some little hamlet in South Carolina, which I am sure is beautiful, suggests that he can’t really fill the bigger venues at this point,” Rubin said. “And he’s not gonna get on the debate stage because he fears someone will take a punch at him. So, we will have to see if he’s wearing thin and if voters, and quite frankly, donors decide that they have had enough.”

Rubin also addressed the content of Trump’s rally speeches, which has been the same old whining about his personal problems and digs at his many enemies, like a band playing the greatest hits. She argued he’s become “even more self-centered, if that’s possible for a narcissist.” It also suggests he’s “completely uninterested” in the nation’s issues.

“He doesn’t talk about inflation, he doesn’t talk about jobs, he doesn’t talk about education, he talks about himself because that’s the only thing that matters,” Rubin said. “And you do wonder at one point if voters get bored with it, and at what point the other candidates say, ‘I’m tired of hearing you whine, Mr. Trump? Why don’t you talk about something else?’

Rubin said “that’s maybe his biggest problem, not that his hard-core supporters would ever leave him, but people kind of get bored of the act.”

Indeed, no one talked about what Trump told the crowd in Pickens. But they did talk about the crowd booing his good pal Lindsey Graham, whom Trump barely defended. Still, it’s probably not a good idea to underestimate the guy who’s spent his life eluding any serious comeuppance.

You can watch Rubin’s MSNBC appearance in the video below.

(Via Raw Story)

At this year’s Glastonbury Festival 2023, Lil Nas X joined the growing list of musicians who’ve had items hurled at them during a concert. During his appearance at the outdoor event, the rapper was nearly hit by an interesting choice of sex toy on stage. In typical Lil Nas X fashion, instead of reprimanding the fan, he joked about it.

A video shows Lil Nas X dodging an item as it nearly grazed his leg. He then walked over to see what was thrown. After realizing it was a replica vagina or “pocket p*ssy,” as it is known in the adult entertainer industry, Lil Nas X picked it up. As he turned to the crowd, he jokingly asked, “Who threw they p*ssy on stage?”

Lil Nas X retweeted the video, which prompted fans to immediately join in on the joke. One person wrote, “I’ve heard people would throw phones, bottles, and clothing, but this is a first .”

Another wrote, “Feel like it was part of the show lol ,” acknowledging Nas’ jokester way but also puzzled as to why anyone would throw female genitalia at an openly gay man.

“Now, why would you pick it up ,” asked one person, rightfully questioning the sanitary nature of the item.

Another was okay with throwing items at Lil Nas X but had specific stipulations about what was acceptable, writing, “The only thing you should ever throw at Lil Nas X is paper money $20 and up.”

Twitter has been a mess all weekend. The social media company, which has been a bit of a headache for all ever since Elon Musk acquired late last year, got even worse after Musk announced there were limits on how many tweets subscribers could see. Suddenly users found they were hitting their “view limit” — not great for a service whose entire allure is endless scrolling for content. Soon hashtags like “#RIPTwitter” were trending. So was Bluesky Social, the new Twitter alternative that features Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on the board. Speaking of Dorsey, he eventually weighed in on the debacle Musk helped create.

“Running Twitter is hard,” Dorsey wrote. “I don’t wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense. It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar…which I’m guilty of…but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will.”

He added, “And I do hope they consider building on truly censorship-resistant open protocols like bitcoin and nostr to help ease that burden. Good for all, and critical to preserve the open internet.”

On Saturday, as thousands of users reported problems accessing Twitter, Musk announced that, due to “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation,” there were new, temporary limits on how many tweets people could see. “Verified” accounts could view 6,000 posts a day. Unverified would only get 600. New verified accounts, strangely, would get fewer than that: only 300.

Later in the day he upped those to 8,000, 800, and 400, respectively. Not long after that he upped it to 10,000, 1,000, and 500, respectively.

Inevitably Musk later mocked people complaining about how his service suddenly stank.

Dorsey left Twitter, which he co-founded in 2006, back in 2021. In April he admitted that Musk shouldn’t have bought his former company. But at least he isn’t going to beat the crap out of him in a cage fight.

(Via Deadline)

Twitter has been a mess all weekend. The social media company, which has been a bit of a headache for all ever since Elon Musk acquired late last year, got even worse after Musk announced there were limits on how many tweets subscribers could see. Suddenly users found they were hitting their “view limit” — not great for a service whose entire allure is endless scrolling for content. Soon hashtags like “#RIPTwitter” were trending. So was Bluesky Social, the new Twitter alternative that features Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on the board. Speaking of Dorsey, he eventually weighed in on the debacle Musk helped create.

“Running Twitter is hard,” Dorsey wrote. “I don’t wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense. It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar…which I’m guilty of…but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will.”

He added, “And I do hope they consider building on truly censorship-resistant open protocols like bitcoin and nostr to help ease that burden. Good for all, and critical to preserve the open internet.”

On Saturday, as thousands of users reported problems accessing Twitter, Musk announced that, due to “extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation,” there were new, temporary limits on how many tweets people could see. “Verified” accounts could view 6,000 posts a day. Unverified would only get 600. New verified accounts, strangely, would get fewer than that: only 300.

Later in the day he upped those to 8,000, 800, and 400, respectively. Not long after that he upped it to 10,000, 1,000, and 500, respectively.

Inevitably Musk later mocked people complaining about how his service suddenly stank.

Dorsey left Twitter, which he co-founded in 2006, back in 2021. In April he admitted that Musk shouldn’t have bought his former company. But at least he isn’t going to beat the crap out of him in a cage fight.

(Via Deadline)

Ron DeSantis has largely abstained from returning fire on his biggest GOP rival, Donald Trump. He won’t even condemn him for Jan. 6. On Friday he finally went full-on. It wasn’t your typical hit job, though: Its argument was that Trump is too nice to the LGBTQIA+ community. It was wildly homophobic…while being wildly homoerotic, juxtaposing images of the Florida governor with images of muscled-up he-men (plus, for some reason, fictional serial killer Patrick Bateman, of American Psycho). It even earned the ire of Log Cabin Republicans. And it got dragged pretty efficiently by Pete Buttigieg.

The sitting secretary of transportation, who’s attacks on the right teem with seething wit, went on CNN’s State of The Union Sunday, where he was asked about the ad. After struggling not to roll his eyes deep into the back of his head, Buttigieg began with a quip.

“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled up shirtless body builders,” he said.

But then he got to “the bigger issue” at the heart of the DeSantis team’s bigoted ways, namely: “Who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off and what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?”

He went on:

“We’re focused as an administration on how to get things done and make people better off. I spend my week traveling around the country to places that are benefitting from infrastructure funding. We’re in Appalachia and an eastern Kentucky that’s been wiped out by floods repeatedly and we’re bringing them highway funding that’s not only going to improve the road but also improve the dam and protect them from floods in the future. A few weeks ago we were in North Dakota where there was a railroad crossing that was a community headache for decades, and thanks to President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure funds we finally have the resources to do something about it. We’re going to make that better and not be a problem holding back first responders.”

He concluded: “These are the kinds of problems most of us got into government, politics, public service to work on. And I just don’t understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community that is already so vulnerable in America.”

It’s worth noting that the LGBTQIA+ community isn’t the only community DeSantis is trying to harm. His culture war antics are also costing all Floridians millions.

Since arriving at the trade deadline four years ago, Jordan Clarkson has found a comfortable home in Utah, emerging as a Sixth Man of the Year Award winner and fully embracing his abilities as a scoring guard.

This past season, Clarkson moved into the starting lineup for the surprisingly competitive Jazz and averaged 20.8 points and 4.4 assists per game, both career highs. Coming off another strong season, Clarkson made a mildly surprising move, as he decided to pick up his player option for the 2023-24 season instead of declining it, hitting the open market, and becoming a presumably very in-demand unrestricted free agent.

All of that paved the way for Clarkson and the Jazz to sit down and hammer out a contract extension, and on Sunday morning, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the two sides figured something out to keep Clarkson in Utah for the foreseeable future. The 31-year-old guard and the Jazz came to an agreement on a three-year renegotiation and extension, one that will keep him with the team through the 2025-26 season.

Clarkson’s been an important piece of the puzzle ever since he got to Utah, and while him picking up his player option made this seem inevitable, it’s a good bit of business by both sides to get it done.

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Clean (Documentary streaming on Amazon Prime)

You may have seen Sunshine Cleaning (a morbid little picture starring Emily Blunt and Amy Adams), and this movie follows similar subject matter with a documentary approach. The project involves a real-life trauma cleaning business (exactly what it sounds like — they mop up after crime scenes and the like) and its owner (Sandra Pankhurst), who keeps things humming along until an event in her personal life upends her daily flow, and things end up spiraling. True crime junkies will want to at least try this one.

TIE: 10. Hijack ( Apple TV+ series)

Idris Elba must save the world, or at least save the lives of a plane full of people whose air-bound voyage from Dubai to London gets (as the title suggests) hijacked. Elba plays a savvy negotiator who is now aiming to stop hijackers who have blackmailed (?) the pilot, which is very strange because that must be some serious dirt to get him to hand over over 100 lives like it ain’t no thing. This show is only getting started, though, so we’ll see if things become less bizarre (or potentially confusing) as time streams forth.

9. Black Mirror (Netflix series)

Even in 2023, Charlie Brooker’s tech-focused dystopian brainchild can manage to whip up almost as many enduring permutations as the Bandersnatch movie. This season contains no shortage of fresh hell to infiltrate your dreams at night, and look forward to pseudo-horror stories featuring Salma Hayek, Zazie Beetz, Annie Murphy, Josh Hartnett, Aaron Paul, Michael Cera, Paapa Essiedu, and Rob Delaney. As well, the one and only Rory Culkin continues to have a streaming moment even while Kieran has been not-so-quietly toiling away in a little ditty called Succession.

8. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (MGM movie streaming on VOD and Amazon Prime)

Regé-Jean Page’s (armored) abs have moved out of their Bridgerton era, and now, he’s sharing the screen with Chris Pine and a lute. The full ensemble — including Michelle Rodriguez being a badass and Hugh Grant in total, scenery-chewing villain mode — has a ball with bringing the spirit of the role-playing game to life, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to boot. You’ll enjoy watching this at home as much as you once (or possibly still do) dug hanging out in a friend’s basement with snacks and a group of fellow D&D-heads.

7. Suits (USA series streaming on Netflix)

For unknown reasons, this show has somehow been riding high up on the Netflix Top 10 lists. Meghan Markle is obviously up to much different drama these days, but here’s her old escapist series that also cranked up the legal drama, albeit outside the courtroom, on occasion. This show ain’t Ally McBeal , but rather, a good, old-fashioned mix of sudsy office politics that kept people hooked. Those sex scenes that Prince Harry unfortunately watched didn’t hurt this long-running series’ appeal, either.

6. Secret Invasion (Disney+ series)

The introductory episodes for this Marvel spy series bring back a tired-as-hell Nick Fury, who’s been falling down on the job ever since Thanos f*cked things up with his genocidal showmanship. Yes, show gives off a “one last job” vibe, but Fury can’t count on being able to fade into the shadows because the job involves the Skrulls largely heading into villain mode after somehow being helpful during Captain Marvel. Also, you might see a long-running member or two of the MCU revealed to be not-of-this-Earth, but fortunately, Ben Mendelsohn is still crushing it as the soda-sipping Talos. As well, Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman make their MCU debuts.

5. Silo (Apple TV+ series)

Graham Yost has been a busy dude lately between having a hand in Justified: City Primeval and showrunning this world-building (and world-destructing) series about the last vestiges of humanity residing within a massive underground silo. The first season does cover only about half of the first Wool omnibus book, and there’s no telling whether the next season will pick up in chronological order, or whether Apple TV+ is planning to cover Shift or move into Dust. The changes to the source material thus far have served the move to the small screen well, and Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) kicks ass, even if I cannot stop being distracted by Common’s out-of-place leather jacket. Feels like we could finally use an explanation there.

4. The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC series streaming on AMC+)

This franchise still has plenty of life in it yet. Flagship series enemies Maggie and Negan team up (basically because Maggie makes him do so) to save her son, Hershel, from the clutches of The Croat. The season turns out to be a thrilling throwback and launched as a ratings hit, and fans are absolutely loving the tastes of “Old Negan” that he’s trucked out for this spinoff. He’s now doing this for a different reason, though, which makes his continued “redemption” much more textured than it felt during the series proper. Now, we need a release date for Daryl In Paris.

3. Extraction 2 (Netflix film)

No one knew if the sequel could match up to the streaming numbers of the first Tyler Rake film, especially since streaming movie releases are more commonplace than they were a few years ago. Still, the Chris Hemsworth audience showed up en masse once more, which means that we will probably be seeing a third installment eventually. For now, one can rewatch that 21-minute, one-take action scene and appreciate the heck out of Hemsworth’s success when he’s not buried in a Thor wig.

2. I’m A Virgo (Amazon Prime series)

Boots Riley does it again with another addition to your must-watch list. The mind behind Sorry To Bother You is back with Jharrel Jerome as a giant (yes, that’s right) teenager who finally unhides himself from the world for eye-opening lessons. The Hero (portrayed by Walton Goggins!) actually fights crime while also being a comic book inspiration. It’s a coming-of-tale age like no other, and get ready because Riley is here to not only skewer storytelling tropes but also the commodification of everything. Also, this show has so many surreal touches and sci-fi dalliances that are dizzyingly delicious.

1. The Bear (FX series streaming on Hulu)

What was once a sleeper series is now an official juggernaut. The second season of this Jeremy Allen-starring joint retains all the heat of the original outing with much more flavor and added texture. Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie ends up practically stealing the season, and I hope that Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney will one day open her own place. Also, the guest-star quotient this season is flat-out nuts, so hopefully, no one has spoiled all of those glorious cameos for you yet. That would be very disrespectful to all the Chefs out there.

While the Sacramento Kings went into the offseason with big hopes about how they’d spend their copious amounts of cap space, one thing stood out as being more important than the rest: figure out an extension with Domantas Sabonis. The team’s All-Star center had one more year on his contract before he could hit unrestricted free agency next summer, and unsurprisingly, the Kings wanted to make sure that was all sorted out sooner rather than later.

On Saturday night, that all got resolved. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Sabonis and the Kings renegotiated and extended his contract, which will lead to an additional $195 million in cash coming his way. In all, the deal will mean Sabonis is under contract with Sacramento for the next five years, and the renegotiation means he’ll be due $217 million over that period of time.

Sabonis came to Sacramento in February of 2022 by way of the Indiana Pacers in a deal that saw the Kings part ways with prized young guard Tyrese Haliburton. It ended up being an excellent move for Sacramento, as Sabonis was critical in the team’s success last year, averaging 19.1 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 7.3 assists in 34.6 minutes per game en route to earning an All-NBA Third Team selection.

For weeks, reports have indicated that the Miami Heat were going to stay out of going star hunting on the trade market in the event that Damian Lillard decided he wanted to leave the Portland Trail Blazers. That ended up being a wise decision, because on Saturday afternoon, Lillard informed the Blazers that he would like a trade. To take things even one step further, reports indicate that Lillard has explicitly said to the team that he’d prefer a move to Miami.

There are some pretty clear issues the Heat will need to overcome, namely that Portland is under no obligation to send them Lillard. But no matter what, two of the three necessary parties here want him in Miami, and according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, the Heat already have some semblance of what they want to offer to acquire his services.

The Heat are prepared to offer a package centered around Tyler Herro, with possibly Duncan Robinson and picks, sources say. The Heat would prefer to keep Caleb Martin out of any trade scenarios.

Portland could try to include Jusuf Nurkić in a deal, sources say.

There’s been reporting that says Portland is going to look for the best deal no matter where it comes from, and Haynes mentioned earlier in the day that a swap involving the Heat would likely require a third team.

A bombshell dropped in the world of basketball on Saturday afternoon. Less than 24 hours into the opening of the NBA’s free agency period, Damian Lillard informed the Portland Trail Blazers that he would like a trade. A number of teams are unsurprisingly interested in acquiring his services, but reports indicate that Lillard has his eyes set on one team: the Miami Heat.

Lillard has said in the past that he’d like to be in Miami and play with Bam Adebayo, with whom he is close, and seeing as how he wants to compete for a championship, it would make sense that he’d be interested in joining a team that made it to the NBA Finals last year. The issue that Lillard could theoretically face here is that Portland doesn’t necessarily have to trade Lillard to Miami, as his contract doesn’t have a no-trade clause.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, there’s a sense that the Blazers’ front office is willing to look around and do what they can do to land a “star-level return” for the best player in franchise history. That, of course, means there’s no guarantee that Lillard would get a move to the Heat.

An issue that the Heat might end up needing to sort out in all of this is that the most appealing player who could be moved here is Tyler Herro, and he doesn’t quite fit in alongside Portland’s young core of Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, and Anfernee Simons, assuming that the Blazers would keep all three of them going forward. That’s not an impossible situation to remedy — Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report noted that a deal between the two teams would likely need a third team, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean it would be to accommodate Herro, it’s easy to see why he might not be a fit in Portland. But regardless, while it’d make sense if the Blazers don’t want to do wrong by Lillard after all he’s done for the team, this is a situation where the best outcome for the team and the best outcome for the player don’t fully align with one another.